Land for jobs case: HC rejects Lalu plea to halt CBI prosecution
The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, his family, and several others in connection with the land-for-jobs case.
The Delhi high court has dismissed a plea moved by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad seeking to stay the trial court proceedings in the corruption case related to the alleged land-for-jobs case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, his family, and several others in connection with the land-for-jobs case. During his tenure as the Union railways minister between 2004 and 2009, Yadav is alleged to have granted railway jobs in exchange for land parcels from candidates or their relatives, either as gifts or at significantly reduced prices.
CBI on May 18, 2022 had registered a case against the former railway minister and 15 others, including his wife, two daughters, unidentified public servants and private persons. They were granted bail in the CBI case, saying they should not be arrested before the charge sheet was filed. Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court is scheduled to commence arguments in CBI’s case on June 2.
In an application filed on May 29, Prasad’s counsel senior advocate Kapil Sibal had urged the court to stay the proceedings until disposal of his plea seeking to quash the criminal case, citing absence of sanction under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, for initiating the preliminary inquiry. The said section mandates police officers to seek prior approval before conducting an inquiry, investigation or trial into an alleged corruption offence by a public servant, if the offence relates to official recommendations or decisions.
In an order released on Saturday, a bench of justice Ravinder Dudeja said, “The present matter is stated to be listed before the learned Special Judge for arguments on charge. Notwithstanding, the pendency of the present petition, the petitioner would be at liberty to urge all his contentions, before the learned trial court at the stage of consideration of charge. This would be rather an added opportunity to the petitioner to put forth his point and get the same adjudicated. Thus, I find no compelling reasons to stay the proceedings of the trial court. The application of stay is therefore dismissed.”
The judge, however, issued a notice on Yadav’s plea seeking to quash the FIR and fixed August 12 as the next date of hearing.
Sibal further submitted that even though CBI had conducted an investigation from 2009 to 2014, and had even filed its closure report before the competent court, the initiation of the fresh investigation in 2021 and registration of FIR thereafter in 2022, was in concealment of the previous investigations and closure report that was an abuse of the process of law.
He added that city court’s 2023 order taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed against him was “bad” since it had failed to ignore the illegality committed by CBI during the investigation.
However, the court turned down his request stating there were no compelling reasons to stay the proceedings. The HC judge was of the view that Prasad would get an “added opportunity” to put forth his contention before the trial court and get the same adjudicated.
CBI, represented by special public prosecutor DP Singh, had opposed the petition saying that it was not necessary to obtain prior sanction to probe Prasad’s role. He further submitted that Prasad had “misused” his position as railway minister, through his “cronies” and the only sanction required was for prosecution in the corruption case, which the agency had taken. He further pointed out that the RJD chief had directly approached the high court when the argument on charge is yet to commence in the case before a trial court and the said submissions could be made before the trial court too.
Based on CBI’s case, ED had initiated the probe. In its first chargesheet filed in January last year, the ED named RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and their daughters, Misa Bharti, and Hema Yadav. The federal agency, also named a “close associate” of the Yadav family Amit Katyal, railway employee and alleged beneficiary Hridayanand Chaudhary, and two firms AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd and AB Exports Pvt Ltd, through their common director Shariqul Bari. In its first 100-page supplementary charge sheet filed in August, ED had named Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, and eight others as accused in the money laundering case.
