ED summons Lalu, Tejashwi for questioning in land-for-jobs case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad for questioning in the railways land-for-jobs money laundering case probe, official sources said on Wednesday.

While Tejashwi (34), has been asked to depose before the federal probe agency at its office in Delhi on December 22, Prasad (75), has been asked to appear next week on December 27 to record their statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED has once questioned Tejashwi for about eight hours in this case on April 11 but this is the first time it has summoned Prasad for joining the probe. The summons comes following the questioning of an alleged "close associate" of the Lalu Prasad family, Amit Katyal.

He was arrested by the ED in November. The alleged scam pertains to the period when Prasad was the railway minister in the UPA-1 government. It is alleged that from 2004 to 2009, several people were appointed to Group "D" positions in various zones of the Indian Railways and in lieu, these people transferred their land to the family members of the then railway minister Prasad and a linked company named A K Infosystems Private Limited. Katyal was the director of this company when it acquired land from candidates "on behalf" of Lalu Prasad, the ED had earlier claimed in a statement.