RJD chief Lalu Prasad has accused the BJP of vendetta politics and vowed to continue his fight against the party and the RSS, charging the Enforcement Directorate with making his daughters, grandchildren and pregnant daughter-in-law sit 15 hours during raids on Friday.
Lalu took to Twitter close to midnight on Friday to vent his feelings about the ED raids in the railway jobs-for-land case and said no member of his family or party would bow down before the BJP.
“I have seen the dark phase of the Emergency. I fought that battle too. The BJP’s ED has made my daughters, maternal grandchildren and pregnant daughter-in-law sit for 15 hours in baseless vendetta cases. Will the BJP stoop to such a low level in the political fight against me?” Lalu tweeted at 11.24pm.
“I had an ideological fight against the Sangh (RSS) and the BJP and it shall continue. I have never got down on my knees in front of them and nobody from my family or party will bend down before their politics,” the former Bihar chief minister added.
Lalu is currently staying at the Delhi residence of his eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti after returning from Singapore in February following a kidney transplant in December.
Doctors have advised Lalu, who too has been questioned by the CBI in the case, not to mingle with people to avoid catching infections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge came out in Lalu’s support, tweeting late on Friday night: “Modi ji has made the ED squat at the house of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. His sisters and pregnant wife are being harassed. Lalu Prasad is old and ill, yet the Modi government has not shown humanity towards him. The water has now gone above the head.”
CBI officials leave the residence of Lalu’s daughter and RJD MP Misa Bharti in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI
Kharge said the Modi government was misusing the ED and the CBI to target Opposition leaders and murder democracy.
“Where were the government agencies when absconders fled with crores of rupees from the country? Why is his best friend not investigated when his property touches the sky? The public will give a befitting reply to this dictatorship,” the Congress leader added.
The ED on Friday raided at least 15 residential and commercial premises related to Lalu’s son Tejashwi, daughters Hema, Chanda and Ragini, relative and Samajwadi Party leader Jitendra Yadav, former Bihar RJD MLA Abu Dojana and other associates after taking up the investigation in the land-for-jobs scam that allegedly took place in the railways during Lalu’s tenure as minister from 2004 to 2009.
The raids got over in the early hours of Saturday. Although the agency has not issued any official statement so far, sources said that apart from documents, around 540 grams of gold coins, 1.5kg gold jewellery, Rs 53 lakh in cash and $900 were seized.
Earlier, the CBI had registered an FIR in the same case in May 2022 and followed it up with a chargesheet in October, alleging that Lalu had helped at least 111 people from Bihar secure Group D jobs in various railway zones in lieu of land and money.
The posts had not been advertised for recruitment. Around 150 people from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi too were given railway jobs against bribes, the CBI alleged.
The CBI had questioned Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi earlier this week in Delhi and Patna, respectively. Tejashwi, who was in Delhi and was summoned by the CBI for questioning on Saturday, sought another date citing his wife’s health. He said he had to accompany her to hospital.
The CBI had previously summoned Tejashwi to Delhi on March 4, but he had sought time then too, citing the budget session of the Bihar legislature. A CBI court in Delhi has summoned Lalu, Rabri and Misa to appear on March 15.
