New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) A Delhi court on Friday ordered framing of charges against RJD chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family members and others in the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

Special Judge Vishal Gogne said Lalu Prasad 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.

A portion of the order, which listed the principal findings justifying the framing of charges, was accessed by PTI late evening.

It said, “The court finds, on the touch stone of grave suspicion, that there existed an overarching criminal conspiracy, mentored by Lalu Prasad Yadav, towards using public employment as a bargaining chip for receiving immovable properties through his wife Rabri Devi, daughters Misha Bharti and Hema Yadav as well as sons Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav from willing job seekers.” The chargesheet strongly indicated that the close associates of Lalu Prasad, namely Bhola Yadav, R K Mahajan and P C Gupta, probably facilitated, as co-conspirators, the acquisition of these lands in lieu of jobs provided to the nominees of Lalu Prasad in Group D posts across various Railway zones in India, the order said.

“Several accused substitutes apparently used false documents to secure these appointments,” it said.

It added that the plea of Lalu Prasad and his family members for being discharged was "completely unwarranted when the Ministry of Railways and the lands of his constituents were apparently being lorded over by him as a personal fiefdom”.

“There are strong indications from the chargesheets that Lalu Prasad Yadav and the accused members of his family were operating as a criminal enterprise designed to usurp private lands by bartering away government posts,” the order said.

It said several accused general managers of the Indian Railways emerged prima facie as having made these appointments by abuse of their discretion to engage Group D substitutes in the Railways.

“The court would also observe that the description of the present chargesheet as involving allegations of 'land for jobs' does constitute the centrality and core of the criminality ascribed to the substitutes who parted with land to secure appointments,” the order said.

“The absence of land as a de facto bribe for the appointment of several accused substitutes does remove these accused from the zone of grave suspicion. Such accused substitutes and the railway officials allegedly instrumental in these appointments are liable to be discharged,” it added.

The court framed charges in the case against 41 persons, and discharged 52, which included railway officials and substitutes who did not part with their land.

Earlier, the CBI submitted a verification report regarding the status of the accused in the case, saying out of the 103 accused named in its chargesheet, five died.

The court has posted the matter for the formal framing of charges on January 23. Court sources said the complete order would be made available on Saturday.

The CBI filed chargesheets against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and others in connection with the alleged scam.

It alleged that appointments in the Group D category of the West Central Zone of the Indian Railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, were made during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the railway minister from 2004 to 2009 in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the names of the RJD supremo's family members or associates.

The CBI also claimed that the appointments were made in violation of norms and that the transactions involved benami properties, amounting to criminal misconduct and conspiracy.

The accused have denied the charges, claiming the case is politically motivated. PTI MNR ARI