New Delhi. A Delhi court on Monday formally framed charges against former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi in connection with the land-for-jobs ‘scam’. Special Judge Vishal Gogane said, “Charges are framed against accused number 1 (Lalu Prasad) and accused number 2 (Rabri Devi), although they have pleaded innocent and have agreed to face trial.”
February 27 has been fixed for further proceedings in the case. The judge had on January 29 granted liberty to Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav and some others to appear in person between February 1 and 28 for the formal framing of charges.
On January 9, the court had ordered framing of charges against Lalu Prasad, his family members and others. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has framed charges against 41 accused and discharged 52 others in the case. Of the 103 accused named in the CBI charge sheet, five have died.
“The court finds on the basis of grave suspicion that a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy was hatched at the behest of Lalu Prasad with the objective of using government job as a bargaining chip to obtain immovable properties of job aspirants through his wife Rabri Devi, daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav and sons Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav,” the judge said in the 346-page order.
Citing the CBI charge sheet, the order said that there are strong indications that Lalu Prasad’s close aides, Bhola Yadav, R. Of. Mahajan and P. C. Gupta, possibly as co-conspirators, had helped persons specified by the former Railway Minister to acquire the plots in exchange for providing them jobs in ‘Group D’ posts in various railway zones of the country.
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