ED arrests Lalu Prasad's 'associate' Amit Katyal in connection to land-for-job scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Amit Katyal, an alleged associate of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav, in connection to the ’land-for-job’ scam case. Katyal was detained by the ED on Friday after several hours of questioning and will be produced before a local court where the agency will seek his custody for interrogation. Sources said Katyal was evading the agency’s summons for questioning for about two months. The Delhi High Court had recently rejected his plea to quash the ED summons against him in this case. Katyal’s residence was raided in March by ED along with the premises of Lalu Prasad, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, his sisters and others. According to ED, Katyal is a ‘close associate’ of Lalu Prasad and his son Tejasvi and is also a former director of A K Infosystems Private Limited. A K Infosystems Private Limited is allegedly a “beneficiary company” in the case and its registered address is a residential building in south Delhi’s New Friends Colony, which was being used by Tejashwi Yadav. The alleged scam pertains to the period when Prasad was the railway minister in the UPA-1 government. It is alleged that from 2004 to 2009, several people were appointed to Group “D” positions in various zones of the Indian Railways and in lieu, these people transferred their land to the family members of the then railway minister Prasad and A K Infosystems Private Limited. With inputs from PTI