The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided at least nine locations of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders, including a former Union minister, in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Patna and Bhojpur on Tuesday in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam in the railways.

The RJD attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the raids and called it a panic reaction after the rout in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

While the raids in Gurugram, Noida and Delhi focused on the premises of Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta, they concentrated on the residences of Sandesh MLA Kiran Devi and her muscleman husband, former MLA Arun Yadav in Patna and Bhojpur districts.

Gupta, 73, is a native of Haryana, a four-term Rajya Sabha member and a close confidant of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He was the Union minister of corporate affairs between 2004 and 2008, coinciding roughly with the tenure of Lalu as the railway minister during which the scam allegedly took place.

Arun and Kiran are considered close to the Lalu family. They dabble in sand trade and own palatial bungalows and property spread across different places in Bhojpur and Patna.

Separate CBI teams arrived at different locations early in the morning and went about their work. The entry and exit of people were stopped while the raids continued through the day.

“The searches are being conducted after the role of these leaders in the ‘land-for-jobs’ scam in the railways came to light following our investigations,” a CBI official, who did not want to be named, said at the residential premises belonging to Arun at Agiyaon in Bhojpur.

Lalu and wife Rabri Devi, were in Patna, but left for Delhi in the evening.

The land-for-jobs scam allegedly happened between 2004 and 2009 when Lalu was the Union railway minister. The CBI, in its chargesheet filed in October 2022, has alleged that Lalu helped at least 111 people from Bihar to illegally secure Group D jobs in various railway zones in lieu of money and land. These posts were not advertised publicly for recruitment.

Lalu, himself a former Bihar chief minister and a convict in three fodder scam cases, is the main accused in the land-for-jobs scam. The other accused include Rabri, eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti, daughter Hema Yadav, and younger son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.