In blow to Lalu, SC refuses to stay trials in land-for jobs cases | India News

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Bihar meeting elections, RJD chief Lalu Prasad suffered a setback on Friday with SC declining to stay ongoing trial proceedings towards him in land-for-job ‘scam’ cases, in which CBI charge-sheeted him for allegedly securing plots of land from those that bought jobs in the railways throughout 2004-09 when he was railway minister.When senior advocate Kapil Sibal tried to discredit the cases towards Prasad, lodged in 2022 after greater than a decade of the alleged ‘scam’, by terming it as political vendetta, extra solicitor basic S V Raju informed a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh that Prasad’s petition for quashing of FIRs in the cases remains to be pending in the Delhi HC and that the previous railway minister has challenged an interim order of HC.Though Sibal maintained with vehemence that “it is the most unfortunate case” and accused CBI of beginning a probe with out necessary sanction beneath part 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the bench stated, “We will not stay the trial. However, we can direct the trial court to dispense with Prasad’s personal presence. Let HC decide the main issue.”After investigations, CBI on June 7 final yr filed the third and closing chargesheet earlier than a particular courtroom in Delhi towards Prasad, his spouse Rabri Devi, son Tej Pratap Yadav and daughter Hema Yadav, and others. The case towards Prasad and his relations is said to appointments made to Group D positions in 11 Railway Zones between 2004 and 2009.