New Delhi: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav did not appear before the CBI for questioning on Saturday in the alleged land-for-jobs scam citing personal reasons, officials said. The federal agency summoned RJD leader Yadav for questioning on Saturday after he had skipped the previous date on March 4, they said. He has cited personal reasons for not attending the questioning session, following which the agency is likely to give him another date, they said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had recently questioned RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi -- former chief ministers of Bihar -- in Delhi and Patna respectively. The case pertains to people allegedly given employment in the railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and its associates, the officials said.
After the recent questioning of his parents, Tejashwi Yadav had alleged that investigation agencies were acting against political opponents of the ruling BJP at the Centre. "It is an open secret that probe agencies are acting against political opponents of the BJP and helping those who agree to align with that party," the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader had told reporters outside the Bihar assembly on Monday.
Yadav then said that Prasad, as the railway minister, had "no powers" to give employment in exchange for favours. He got support from the Congress and the AAP, which targeted the central government, alleging that the ruling BJP wanted to "suppress" the voice of the Opposition. Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar on Saturday hinted that he agreed with the contention of ally RJD that the recent crackdown on its president Lalu Prasad and his family members by the CBI and ED was "politically motivated".