Land-for-jobs ‘scam’: Lalu Prasad moves Delhi HC to quash CBI FIR

New Delhi: Former Railway minister Lalu Prasad on Thursday sought in the Delhi High Court the quashing of the FIR filed by the CBI in the land-for-jobs “scam”.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared in the court on behalf of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and argued that the enquiry and the FIR as well as the investigation and the subsequent chargesheets in the matter could not be legally sustained as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to obtain prior sanction under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The sanction under section 17A is a mandatory requirement of law to launch any enquiry or investigation against a public servant, he said.

Submitting that the trial court is slated to hear arguments on charge on June 2, Sibal urged the court to pass directions to defer the same.

The case is related to Group-D appointments made in the West Central Zone of the Indian Railway based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, during Prasad’s tenure as the rail minister between 2004 and 2009 allegedly in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the name of the RJD supremo’s family members or associates, officials said.