Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today defended ally Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet in the alleged job scam during Mr Yadav's tenure as Railway Minister in the Congress-led UPA government over 10 years ago. He said, "there's nothing in the case" and suggested the BJP is going after the Rashtriya Janata Dal patriarch only because their parties have joined forces against them.
"What happened 5 years ago? We had parted ways (with RJD). Nothing happened (in the case). I've seen everything, there's nothing there. Now that we are not with the BJP, they have started it again. They do whatever they feel like, what can we do?" he told reporters.
The central agency on Friday filed a chargesheet against 16 people, including Lalu Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi - both former chief ministers, whose son is currently Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
The agency had filed the FIR on May 18 against the husband-wife and two of their daughters, Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, besides 12 people who got jobs in the railways. Most of them are on bail.
Lalu Prasad Yadav is accused of getting over 1 lakh square feet of land belonging to job aspirants' families in Patna transferred to his family in return for jobs.
The RJD has repeatedly said this CBI case - and several other cases against the Yadav family -- are "a political ploy of the BJP's central government".
Mr Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav recently became deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar after the latter dumped the BJP to revive the JDU's alliance with RJD.
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