Land-for-jobs scam: Lalu Yadav moves Supreme Court to stay trial court proceedings-OxBig News Network

Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav has moved the Supreme Court against an order dismissing his plea seeking a stay on the trial court proceedings over the CBI’s land-for-jobs case.

A Bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh would likely hear the matter on July 18.

On May 29, the Delhi High Court said there were no compelling reason to stay the proceedings.

The High Court issued notice to the CBI on Mr. Yadav’s plea for quashing of the CBI FIR and posted the hearing on August 12.

The case is related to Group D appointments made in the West Central Zone of the Indian Railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the Railway Minister between 2004 and 2009, allegedly in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the name of the RJD supremo’s family or associates, officials said.

In his petition in the High Court, Mr. Prasad sought the quashing of the FIR and three chargesheets filed in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and the subsequent orders of cognisance.

The case was registered on May 18, 2022, against Mr. Yadav and others, including his wife, two daughters, unidentified public officials and private persons.

The former Chief Minister said the FIR was lodged in 2022 — almost a 14-year delay — despite the CBI’s initial enquiries and investigations being closed after filing of closure report before the competent court.

“Initiation of the fresh investigation in the concealment of the previous investigations and its closure reports is nothing but an abuse of the process of law,” it said.

The petitioner argued he was being made to suffer through an “illegal, motivated investigation” in violation of his fundamental right to a fair investigation.

“Both, the initiation of the present enquiries and investigations are non est as both have been initiated without a mandatory approval under Section 17A of the PC Act. Without such approval, any enquiry/inquiry/investigation undertaken would be void ab initio,” the plea added.

Mr. Yadav called it a scenario of “regime revenge and political vendetta” as the initiation of investigation without such approval vitiated the entire proceedings since inception with the being a “jurisdictional error”.