The CBI arrested Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s close associate and former Bihar legislator Bhola Yadav in Delhi on Wednesday in connection with an alleged recruitment scam when the veteran politician was railway minister.
Bhola was officer on special duty (OSD) to Lalu when he was railway minister in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009. The arrest followed Bhola’s questioning by the CBI in Delhi last week.
Lalu has been accused of helping at least 261 people get Group D jobs in different railway zones across the country in exchange for land and money. The positions were not advertised for recruitment.
The CBI had registered an FIR on May 18 against Lalu, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav and several alleged beneficiaries.
CBI sleuths raided four residences of Bhola in Patna and Darbhanga districts.
“Five people came early in the morning and said they were from the CBI. They stayed here for a few hours and searched everything. They took away a diary,” said Sheela Kumari, a niece of Bhola at his native home in Darbhanga’s Khapchhahi village.
The timing of the arrest and raids raised eyebrows in political circles as the ruling BJP-JDU alliance in Bihar has come under increasing strain and chief minister Nitish Kumar’s party has appeared to gravitate towards the RJD.
“Timing is a big factor in politics and the BJP uses it effectively not only to subdue its opponents but also to ensure that nobody else dares to raise their head against it. It is working in its dictatorial quest to destroy everybody else with a different ideology. The current raids are a part of the plan to malign opponents. They instil fear among others that they will also have to face similar consequences if they oppose the BJP,” socialist leader and former Lok Sabha member Vijay Krishna told The Telegraph.
RJD leader Shakti Yadav asserted that Bhola’s arrest was a gross misuse of power by the central government.
Bhola, a national general secretary of the RJD, has been with Lalu for almost three decades and is known as his shadow.
