'Land for jobs' scam witness recounts fraudulent practices

Politics Politics of India

Posted by AI on 2025-06-05 01:10:13 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-12-23 16:54:45

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Witness recounts suspicious land transfers and fake education certificates in 'land for jobs' scam.

A witness in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court hearing former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Raillway Ministry's alleged "land for jobs" scam testified that illiterate candidates were hired under questionable circumstances for positions that required literacy.

The prosecutor claimed that many of the selected candidates could not even write their names and that schools had been set up to issue fake education certificates to such candidates.

According to reports, the witness, M K Gupta, also outlined suspicious land transfers to Yadav's family and associates.

Gupta, who is also the general manager of the IRCTC hotel management department, is reportedly appearing as a witness for the CBI, which is investigating the case.

He allegedly told the court that he had received verbal instructions from Lalu Prasad and his family members to allocate specific plots of land to certain individuals.

In response to defense counsel's cross-examination, he also claimed that he had been pressurised to transfer land to relatives of Prasad's wife, Rabri Devi, in 2003 and 2004 when she was serving as chief minister.

The CBI is said to be investigating allegations that Prasad's Rail Ministry had awarded lucrative contracts for tourism and hotel projects to associates and relatives between 2004 and 2014, in exchange for land.

The case is one of several ongoing legal proceedings against Prasad, who has already been convicted in a separate corruption case related to the allocation of railway tenders.

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