Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav did not appear before CBI on Saturday due to his wife’s ill-health, official sources said.
Tejashwi’s wife had to be hospitalised in Delhi after the raids a day ago. She is pregnant and fainted due to blood pressure issues after 12 hours of interrogation, sources added.
Former Bihar CM and Tejashwi’s father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, had tweeted in Hindi in the morning and said: “We have also seen the dark phase of Emergency. We fought that battle too. Today my daughters, little granddaughters and pregnant daughter-in-law were kept seated for 15 hours by BJP’s ED in baseless vindictive cases. Will BJP stoop to such a low level and fight a political battle with us?”
Lalu added that his ideological fight against Sangh and the BJP will continue. “I have never bowed before them and no one from my family and party will bow down before your politics,” he said attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Tejashwi was earlier called for questioning on March 4 but he had not appeared before the CBI sleuths, following which a fresh date was given for Saturday, officials said.
The federal agency recently questioned RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi 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.
A report in India Express quoted ED sources as saying that a house in Delhi’s New Friends Colony, where Tejashwi was present, was among the 24 premises searched in Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Ranchi and Phulwari Sharif.
Properties allegedly linked to Tejashwi’s sisters Chanda, Ragini and Hema were among those searched along with that of former RJD MLA Abu Dojana.
The report stated that the ED case, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from a CBI probe into allegations that people were given employment in the railways – when Lalu Prasad was railway minister – in return for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and associates.
The New Friends Colony property searched by the ED is identified as D-1088 and is said to be the registered address of a company M/s AK Infosystems Pvt Ltd (AKIPL). According to the CBI FIR in the case, AKIPL got a land parcel in lieu of a railway job given to a candidate when Lalu was railways minister.
Tejashwi Yadav got married in 2021 to Rachel Godinho, who belongs to a Christian family from Haryana and had been living in Delhi since childhood. Rachel and Tejashwi studied together at DPS school in RK Puram, New Delhi.
Their wedding was a close family affair with only former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav seen among the guests. Among RJD leaders, only MP Prem Gupta was at the wedding.
It was Rohini Acharya, Tejashwi’s Singapore-based sister, who confirmed the wedding and the bride’s name in a tweet. Later, Tej Pratap also tweeted photos of the wedding.
With inputs from News18
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