Misa Bharti leaves ED office after seven-hour grilling

Misa Bharti, Rajya Sabha member and the daughter of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, left the headquarters of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Saturday after being grilled for seven hours in connection with the alleged land for job scam.

Misa had reached the ED headquarters at around 11 a.m., and was given a lunch break in between.

The ED had stated that unaccounted cash amounting to Rs 1 crore, $1,900, 540 gm gold and 1.5 kg of gold jewellery and other incriminating documents were recovered during the raids at 24 locations across Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and Ranchi based on specific intelligence inputs.

The central probe agency had claimed to have detected around Rs 600 crore which were proceeds of crime in the form of immovable properties worth Rs 350 crore and transactions of Rs 250 crore routed through various 'benamidars'.

The PMLA investigation conducted so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other places were illegally acquired by Lalu Prasad's family in lieu of jobs in Railways, the probe agency said.

The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 crore, it added. Several 'benamidars', shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified.

"A property situated at D-1088, New Friends Colony, Delhi (an independent four-storey bungalow registered in the name of AB Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired for a mere Rs 4 lakh, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 crore," an ED source claimed.

Huge amount of cash/proceeds of crime were infused in purchasing this property and few Mumbai-based entities, dealing in with gems and jewellery, were used to channel the ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard, the source added.

"While the property has been declared on paper as offices of AB Exports Private Limited and AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, it is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejashwi Yadav. During searches, Tejashwi was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property," the ED alleged.

Four parcels of lands acquired by Lalu Prasad's family for just Rs 7.5 lakh from poor Group-D applicants were allegedly sold to Syed Abu Dojana, ex-RJD MLA, by Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, earning huge gains of Rs 3.5 crore in a collusive deal.

The ED said that investigation has further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received was transferred to the account of Tejashwi Yadav.

"Investigation revealed that in a similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group-D jobs in the Railways. In many railway zones, more than 50 per cent of recruited candidates were from the constituencies of Lalu Prasad's family members," the ED said.