A Delhi court on Friday ordered the framing of charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his family members and others in the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

The order was passed by special judge Vishal Gogne, who observed that Lalu used the railway ministry as his personal fiefdom to carry out a criminal enterprise where public employment was used as a bargaining chip to acquire land parcels by the Yadav family in connivance with railway officials and his close aides.

Orally pronouncing the substantive portion of the order, the judge said the CBI’s final report revealed an “overarching conspiracy on the touchstone of grave suspicion”.

The court has ordered the framing of charges against 41 people but discharged 52 others, which included railway officials, and listed the matter for January 29.

A detailed order is awaited.

Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, their sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav and daughter Misa Bharti are among others who will face trial.

The case pertains to alleged Group D rail appointments in exchange for land parcels transferred to the Yadav family or associates at undervalued rates or as gifts. The CBI has accused Lalu of facilitating the scam during his tenure as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The CBI claimed the appointments were made in violation of norms and that the transactions involved benami properties, amounting to criminal misconduct and conspiracy. A case was lodged against Lalu and others in May 2022. The Yadav family has denied the charges and called the case politically motivated.

‘Law catching up’

The BJP on Friday said the law was “catching up” with Lalu for his involvement in various “scams”.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said courts had sentenced Lalu to a total of 32.5 years of imprisonment in various cases linked to the multi-crore fodder scam. “Bitumen scam, land-for-job-scam, how many more scams will you commit? Lalu Babu, you should have put a full stop somewhere,” he said.