Land for job money laundering case: Court adjourns hearing on chargesheet against Rabri Devi, others

New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday after hearing the initial submissions by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), adjourned the hearing on the chargesheet against Amit Katyal, Rabri Devi and others accused in the Land for job money laundering case. Two firms have been made accused in this case.

ED's counsel submitted that in 2006-07, AK infosystem was formed by Amit Katyal and its business was IT data analysis. No real business was done. Instead, several land parcels were bought by the company. One land parcel pertains to the main predicate offence, which is land for job.
This company was transferred in the name of Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav in 2014 for the consideration of Rs 1 lakh, ED submitted.
Special CBI judge Vishal Gogne listed the matter for further hearing on January 18, 2024.
Advocate Manish Jain, special public prosecutor (SPP) for ED, submitted his initial submissions and said Amit Katyal is the only arrested accused.

Other accused are Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, AK infosystem, AB export and Hridyanand Chaudhary.
SPP Jain submitted that Amit Katyal was the director of AK infosystem. As far as Rabri Devi is also an accused in predicate offence in CBI case. Misa Bharti is an accused in the predicate offence. Hridyanand Chaudhary is also an accused in predicate offence and was arrested.
Advocate Manish Jain also submitted that AB Export was supposed to be in the business of export. It was incorporated in 1996. In 2007, Rs. 5 crore came through five companies and a property in the New Friends colony was purchased.
In this case, a total of seven land parcels are involved. Out of these, Rabri, Hema Yadav, and Misa Bharti got land parcels. Later on, they sold out their land parcels.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a Prosecution Complaint (charge sheet) in Land for job scam money laundering case on January 9, 2024.
ED has named Bihar's Ex-CM Rabri Devi, her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, Hridyanand Chaudhary along with Amit Katyal. Two firms, AB Export and AK Infosystems, have also been made accused.
ED's Special Public Prosecutors Manish Jain and advocate Ishan Baisla had apprised the court that the Yadav family members are beneficiaries of proceeds of crime.
Katyal has been arrested and is in custody. The other accused persons have charge-sheeted without arrest. Katyal's firm was charge-sheeted in the CBI case also.
The Rouse Avenue Court on November 23, 2023, had sent Businessman Amit Katyal, promoter of AK Infosystems to Judicial Custody.
He was arrested by ED in an alleged land-for-jobs scam case. Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The Delhi High Court had refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against Amit Katyal, who is accused of engaging in transactions with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Earlier, the lawyers for Katyal had submitted the original FIR registered on 18.5.22 by the CBI and the period of transaction is 2004-09. ED registered ECIR on August 16, 2022, in relation to this. The CBI has concluded the investigation and I am cited as a protected witness. My arrest is illegal and is contrary to Section 19, the lawyer argued for Katyal.

According to the ED, in the month of March, based on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways Land for Job Scam, which resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore, foreign currency including USD 1900, 540 gram of gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth approximately Rs 1.25 crore), as well as several other incriminating documents, including various property documents, sale deeds, etc., held in the names of family members and benamidaars, indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices.
Searches resulted in the detection of proceeds of crime amounting to approximately Rs 600 crore at this point of time, which are in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 crore and transactions of Rs 250 crore routed through various benamidaars, ED stated.
The ED PMLA investigation conducted so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of the then Rail Mantri, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in lieu of jobs provided in the railways. The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 crore. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified.
Further, investigation under PMLA revealed that the property situated at New Friends Colony, Delhi (independent 4-storeyed bungalow, registered in the name of M/s AB Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 lakh, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 crore.
It is suspected that a huge amount of cash and proceeds of crime have been infused in purchasing this property and a few Mumbai-based entities dealing in the gems and jewellery sector were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard.

The property has been though, on paper declared as office of M/s AB Exports Private Limited and M/s AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd. It is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, the son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. During the searches, Tejasvi Prasad Yadav was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property.

The ED investigation has found that four parcels of land acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav for just Rs 7.5 lakh from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, ex-RJD MLA, by Mrs. Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 crore in a collusive deal.
The ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received was transferred to the account of Sh. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

Investigations revealed that in a similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group D jobs in the railways. It has been revealed during the investigation that in many railway zones, more than 50 per cent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families' constituencies, stated ED.