The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Hridyanand Chaudhury, a group D employee at Railway Coaching Complex, Rajendranagar, in the land for the 'railway jobs scam', they also arrested Bhola Yadav, general secretary of RJD, who was OSD to then Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad between 2004-2009.
At a press conference here on June 14, 2016, the then leader of the Opposition Sushil Kumar Modi, had disclosed that Hridyananad Chaudhury was appointed by Railways in exchange for 7.76 decimal of prime land at Danapur (Patna outskirts), which was valued at Rs 70 lakhs. He had to pay the stamp duty of Rs 6.20 lakhs as well for the registration of land to Ms Hema Yadav, daughter of the then Railway Minister.
In the sale deed, the address of the purchaser (beneficiary) was registered as 10, Circular Road, which is the official residence of Ms Rabri Devi, Lalu Yadav's wife and former chief minister of Bihar.
Sushil Modi, who was deputy chief minister for about 15 years, produced the documents of registration issued by the sub-registrar here in which Lallan Chaudhury was mentioned as a witness to the land transaction.
The next day, Sushil Modi held another press conference to disclose another land for railway job scam. He said that Lallan Chaudhury, who worked in the cowshed of Lalu, also gifted land to Lalu's daughter.
Sushil Modi in about four months between 2016 and 2017 (when he was in the opposition) held uninterrupted 104 press conferences, all related to land for jobs, land for ministry, land for nomination as MLCs, land for RJD nominations for MPs and MLAs. He regularly substantiated his charges with authenticated documents. His only issue was corruption by the Lalu family.
He claimed that Lalu Yadav is the biggest Jamindar (landlord) of Bihar and has amassed land in different parts of Bihar, New Delhi, Ranchi, and Aurangabad, inlcuding other places. He is alleged to have floated many 'Benami companies' to attract investments, one of them is LARA (Lalu, Rabri associates) which has claimed to have opened the largest multi-storey mall in Bihar.
According to the documents submitted by Sushil Modi, as RJD president and important partner in UPA, Lalu had asked Raghunath Jha to transfer his house at Gopalganj to his elder son Tejaswi Yadav and he asked Ms Kanti Singh to gift 95 decimal of prime land on NH 30 to his younger son Tej Pratap Yadav. Both Jha and Singh were made union ministers only after the family received the gift in form of land.
Sushil Modi claimed Lalu owns nearly 175 real estates, including farm houses, petrol pumps, and residential premises. He submitted documents to suggest even in the Kautilya Nagar, the residential colony of legislators and MPs, Lalu forced senior party leaders, including then finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui and then industries minister Baidyanath Pandey to transfer their plots to Lalu's daughters.
Last month, CBI had raided 16 places, including Rabri Devi's House at Patna, Lalu's ancestral village in Phulwariya (Gopalganj), New Delhi and filed FIRs against 15, including Lalu Yadav, his wife and two daughters in connection with the land for jobs in the railways.
Lalu had arranged jobs for the beneficiaries at Hajipur, Patna, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Mumbai and Howrah in exchange for 1,05,292 sq feet of land from the grade four employees, according to the CBI.
Sushil Modi, who was contemporary to Lalu in Patna University Students Union politics had filed a case against Lalu in Patna High Court in the now infamous fodder scam and Lalu had to face imprisonment since 2013.
