Raids Happening Again After We Came Together: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Reacts To ED Raids On Yadav Family — Watch

Nitish Kumar reacted to the raids by Central agencies' on the Yadav family and said that the raids were happening in 2017 when JDU and RJD had parted their ways and the raids are happening again.

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday reacted to the raids by the Central agencies' on Opposition leaders, including Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, who was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate at his residence in New Delhi on Friday in the Land-for-Jobs scam, and said that the raids were happening in 2017 when Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal had parted their ways and when our parties have came together the raids are happening again after 5 years. He also said that those who are being raided are responding to the raids.   

"...This happened in 2017. Then we (JDU-RJD) went our separate ways...5 yrs went by & when we came together, raids occurred again. What can I say?...," Nitish Kumar said as quoted by the news agency ANI. He also said that the central agencies are conducting raids because the opposition parties are united. "Central agencies are conducting raids because opposition parties are united," Kumar said as quoted by PTI.

The ED on Friday conducted raid at the residence of Bihar Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in the national capital in connection with the alleged land-for-job scam case. The ED team left after over 11 hours of questioning the RJD leader at his residence in New Delhi, news agency ANI reported.

The ED on Friday also conducted raids against many relatives of former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav at multiple locations across Delhi, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Bihar in the alleged land-for-jobs scam. 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, ANI reported citing sources.

According to ANI, 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. 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 on Monday also questioned Lalu Prasad's wife, former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, at her Patna (Bihar) residence for over five hours. The CBI has already filed a charge sheet in the case against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and 14 others under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. A Delhi court had last month issued a summons to Lalu Prasad and the other accused to appear before it on March 15.

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, ANI reported.

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.