President sanctions prosecution of Lalu Yadav in land-for-jobs case

President Droupadi Murmu has sanctioned the prosecution of former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the land-for-jobs case. Following the President’s approval, the CBI on Friday filed a copy of the sanction with Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court.
The court will now take notice of the CBI’s chargesheet against Yadav and others involved in the case, which concerns alleged appointments made on the railways in exchange for land. The court will frame charges against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Yadav and his family.
The land-for-jobs case centres around Group-D appointments in the West Central Zone of the Indian Railways, during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as Union Railway Minister between 2004 and 2009. The appointments were allegedly made in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by recruits to Yadav’s family or associates.
The land transfers were reportedly in the names of Yadav’s wife, Rabri Devi, and his two daughters, Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav. In October 2022, the CBI filed a chargesheet naming 16 individuals, including Yadav’s family members. Earlier in 2023, the court summoned Yadav and others, and the CBI has since questioned the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief.
Meanwhile, in August 2024, the Enforcement Directorate filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Yadav, his son and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and eight others in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to a land-for-jobs scam.