Land for jobs scam: Rumours, says Tejashwi after ED claims ₹600 cr detected during raids

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has dismissed claims of the Enforcement Directorate that that proceeds of crime amounting to ₹600 crore were detected during searches on premises owned by him and close family members.

Dubbing the claims as “rumours,” the RJD leader, who is currently in Delhi, said the BJP will be left embarrassed if he made public the “panchnama” (seizure list) signed after the raids.

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“Just recall, in 2007, transactions worth ₹8,000 crore, including a mall and hundreds of land plots, were alleged,” tweeted Yadav, in an obvious reference to the land-for-hotels scam pertaining to his father Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the railway minister.

Now facing the heat in the land-for-jobs scam pertaining to, roughly, the same period, Yadav also recalled his name being linked to a mall seized in Gurugram, which turned out to be owned by a private company. The RJD had threatened legal action against media outlets for “wrongly” reporting that Yadav, the party supremo’s son and heir apparent, owned the commercial establishment.

“The BJP government (at the Centre) spreading rumours again, quoting sources. It should have asked its spin doctors to first settle the account on the previous operations, before coming up with the new tale of ₹600 crore,” Yadav said.

Yadav’s comments come in response to the ED’s claims on Saturday that it seized “unaccounted cash” of ₹1 crore and “detected proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore” after it raided RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s family in connection with a money laundering case linked to the railways land-for-jobs scam.

Also read Land for jobs scam: ED searches premises of Lalu’s family, RJD leaders

“Let them make public the panchnama (seizure list) signed after the raids. If we do so on our own, think of the embarrassment that these BJP leaders will have to face,” added Yadav. The ED had launched raids on Friday at multiple locations linked to Prasad’s family members, including that of his son Tejashwi in Delhi. The CBI had also recently questioned Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi – former chief ministers of Bihar – in the case.

(With inputs from agencies)