‘Fear of 2024’: Tejashwi Yadav on CBI plea to cancel his bail in IRCTC scam

Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Monday alleged that the fear of 2024 Lok Sabha elections is behind the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) move to file a petition in court to cancel his bail in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam.

CBI on Saturday appealed to the special court of Delhi to cancel Yadav’s bail in the IRCTC scam, after which he was issued a notice.

“I am not afraid of the notice. The answer will be given in the court,” he said at the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) office in Patna. He, however, said that he will co-operate with CBI in all possible ways for the investigation.

CBI in its plea claimed that Yadav has openly warned CBI officers against carrying out the investigation in the case.

Tejashwi said that the Centre is scared of him. “They are afraid that what happened in Bihar will happen in the Centre also. I have fully cooperated in the investigation of CBI,” he said.

“I had also offered to CBI, ED and Income Tax that they should come to my house and open the office. In fact, the fear of 2024 is that what has happened in Bihar will happen in the country. This has frightened the BJP,” he said.

The RJD leader said that the BJP is also scared as in Bihar under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar, the government of Mahagathbandhan is going to give lakhs of government jobs in the coming days. “Our initiative has created panic in the central government. They feel that if this happens in Bihar, then the demand for employment from other states will also arise. The BJP is scared of all this as they cannot fulfil their promise of providing 2 crore jobs. Here in Bihar, they were in government for two years but nothing moved in this direction,” he said and added that “the employment drive has made them (BJP) jittery.”

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP.

The IRCTC scam relates to the alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Odisha’s Puri in 2006 to a private firm involving a bribe in the form of a three-acre commercial plot at a prime location in Bihar capital Patna. CBI has charged 12 people and two companies in the case. Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi were granted bail in the case in August 2018. CBI said Yadav had spoken about its officers during a recent press conference in a manner that amounted to intimidating them.