"Congress Started Tradition Of Raids, BJP Is Following...": Akhilesh Yadav

After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted multiple raids in Delhi and Bihar in connection with the alleged land-for-job scam, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that the tradition of raids was started by the Congress which the BJP-led central government is now following.

"The tradition of raids was started by Congress, BJP is following that path...CBI, ED and IT work on the whims of government," said Akhilesh Yadav.

He further alleged that in Mahatma Gandhi's nation, bulldozers had taken over the path of non-violence.

This comes in the backdrop of ED conducting raids against many relatives of former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad at multiple locations across Delhi, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Bihar in the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

Earlier on March 10, the raids were conducted at the residence of Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti among others in Delhi as well as RJD's leader and former MLA Abu Dojana in Bihar, sources.

According to sources, the searches are being conducted at more than 15 locations across Delhi, NCR and Bihar.

Multiple teams of the ED carried out the searches simultaneously on these locations that included the residential and office premises of the suspects and the beneficiaries of the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

The ED carried out these searches under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after filing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) taking cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against Lalu Prasad in the matter.

Notably, the ED conducted raid at the residence of Bihar Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in the national capital.

The ED team left after over 11 hours of questioning the RJD leader at his residence here in New Delhi, they said.

The raids were conducted at the residence of Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti among others in Delhi as well as RJD's leader and former MLA Abu Dojana in Bihar, said sources.

The federal agency carried out these searches days after a CBI team questioned Lalu Prasad in connection with the land-for-jobs case. The CBI on Tuesday quizzed Lalu Prasad for nearly five hours in two sessions.

The CBI has so far arrested three people in connection with the case-- Bhola Yadav, who was an officer on special duty to Lalu Prasad when he was the railway minister; Hridayanand Chaudhary, a railway employee and an alleged beneficiary of the scandal; and Dharmendra Rai, another alleged beneficiary.

The CBI has alleged that Lalu Prasad and some of his family members had received plots of land as bribes for jobs at the Indian Railways between 2004 and 2009 when he was the Railway Minister. The agency had also carried out searches at nearly two dozen locations in August last year in connection with the probe.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)