"Let Them": Tejashwi Yadav As CBI Reopens Closed Cases Against Him

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and his two sisters are likely to get embroiled in another case – one that the Central Bureau of Investigation had closed earlier, saying there was no wrongdoing. The agency has reopened the case a year after it was closed, naming Mr Yadav and his sisters Chanda and Ragini Yadav. The final call, though, has to be taken by agency chief Subodh Kumar Jaiswal.

"The allegation is that Lalu Yadav's family received a prime property from a realty giant in Delhi in return for a contract to redevelop and renovate for two prime railway properties in Mumbai and Delhi, sources said. The CBI claims the property worth around Rs 50 crore was sold for just a few crores to a shell company in which Tejaswi Yadav and his two sisters were directors.

In 2021, the CBI's Investigation Officer cited several irregularities like back-dated stamp papers, sham transactions, and property transfer in favour of Yadavs "at a throwaway price". Senior officers in the agency said the case had to be closed as there were no strong grounds to register a First Information Report.

Sources now say the agency is taking a re-look at the case to see whether a First Information Report can be registered on the basis of the report by the Investigation Officer.

"They have investigated it once. Found nothing. Now they have reopened it. I just want to say that the life of Lalu-ji (his father and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav) and our lives are like an open book. And I have already told the CBI that if they want to open an office at our home, they can. Let them investigate. It makes no difference," Tejashwi Yadav told the media this evening.   

"All our statements are on record. We went several times and answered all the questions of the ED (Enforcement Directorate) and the CBI. So what else can happen?" he added.  

Lalu Yadav is currently recovering from a kidney transplant in Singapore. There are three cases against him for his various decisions as the railway minister in the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.