The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed before a Delhi court Wednesday that those who couldn’t even write their names were given Group-D jobs in the Indian Railways after allegedly gifting land parcels to former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family.
“Signatures, transfer certificates and mark-sheets were all forged… Candidates have mentioned schools in their applications in which they were never enrolled,” argued Senior Advocate and Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) D P Singh, who represented CBI before the Court of Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue Court.
“Was forgery done to show them as eligible?” asked Judge Gogne. “Yes… It is necessary to show that one has passed grade 8 to apply for the jobs,” said Singh.
When Judge Gogne asked if these people hadn’t passed grade 8, Singh replied, “Yes, they couldn’t even write their own names. A school existed where there were no students. It existed for the sole purpose of making forged certificates”.
CBI’s case pertains to the alleged transfer of land at cheap rates to Lalu Yadav and his family in return for appointments made in Group-D substitute jobs in the Central Railway between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the Union railway minister. The agency has named 102 people as accused in the case, which is currently at the stage of hearing arguments on the charge.
As per the CBI chargesheet in the case, there were glaring discrepancies in the documents supplied by those who were given the jobs in this alleged scam. For instance, some candidates had sequential roll numbers on their caste and residence certificates, implying that the accused had obtained these certificates “altogether and for a common purpose”.
“In many land deals that were done…everything was taken in cash. This was also suspicious…in many deals land was sold (to Lalu and family) at a 60 per cent lower rate,” said Singh, who was accompanied by lawyers Manu Mishra and Garima Saxena.
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According to CBI, Lalu Yadav “influenced…officers of Central Railway…by virtue of his position as the minister of Railways… and got appointed the owners and family members of owners of the land parcels wherein he had had interest.”
“As a quid pro quo, the candidates directly or through their relatives or family members, sold land to Lalu Prasad Yadav at highly discounted rates up to 1/4th to 1/5th of the prevailing market rates,” the CBI chargesheet said.
The Central agency has alleged in one of its chargesheet that Lalu’s family acquired over 1 lakh square feet of land for only Rs 26 lakh, as against the circle rate of over Rs 4.39 crore.
On Monday, CBI alleged that many job applications were cleared on the same day, despite being tedious. Singh also argued that the jobs for substitutes weren’t advertised and that no justification or exigency was given to hire them.