Patna: Four days after the Supreme Court agreed to let its director Sanjay K. Mishra continue in office till September 15 despite earlier saying the extension granted to him was illegal, the Enforcement Directorate struck at Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members, attaching properties worth Rs six crore.The Union government has claimed time and again that it needs Mishra to continue in office as a country review of the UN’s Financial Action Task Force for India (FATF) is currently underway. However, experts have pointed out that the ED director does not have a key role to play in this review process, so the Union government’s reasoning is flawed.In its earlier orders, the apex court had ruled the repeated extension of Mishra’s tenure was illegal, and directed the Union government to dispense with his service on July 31. But then the apex court extended the ED’s director’s term till September 15 “in the larger public interest”.Extending Mishra’s term, the court made its displeasures clear to solicitor general Tushar Mehta, observing that it wouldn’t have given an extension to Mishra “under normal circumstances” and wouldn’t “entertain any plea for the same” beyond September 15.It’s not known what Mishra has done for the FATF review after securing an extension on July 8. But on August 1, the ED attached the property of Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejaswhi Yadav and other family members in Patna, Delhi and other parts of the National Capital region worth Rs 6 crore.Rashtriya Janata Dal MP and spokesman Manoj Jha said that “everyone knows that the Centre’s sole purpose behind getting extension for Mishra is to use him against political opponents and dismantle INDIA” (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – a group of 26 anti-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits).“The chariot’s wheel has turned. Whatever efforts the BJP makes, it can’t succeed in breaking INDIA. He (Mishra) won’t survive as the ED’s director beyond September 15. He will go and so will his aaka (patron),” Manoj Jha said. Janata Dal (United) spokesperson and lawyer at Patna high court Anjum Ara supported what Jha said, adding, “No government prior to 2014 had used the central investigating agencies against its political rivals in such a blatant manner.”The focus on LaluHowever, senior Patna high court lawyer Deo Prakash Singh said that the actual intention of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED is to focus on the land-for-job scam and the two Indian Railway Catering Tourism and Corporation hotels given to private operators when Lalu was railway minister (2004-09).“The ED has attached Lalu’s, Tejaswhi’s and other family members’ properties under section 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code which is not much reason for worry. The ED can’t keep the property beyond six months. It will have to report its action to the court and Lalu and his family members would have to explain about their legal claim on the property. They might approach the higher courts for a stay in the matter,” Deo Prakash Singh said.However, “what might be worrying the RJD chief and his family members”, said the lawyer in an interview to Patna-based digital channel Live Cities, was that the CBI had given the case to the ED after filing a new chargesheet against Lalu and his family members.Singh said, “The ED might not be interested in Lalu and family’s properties. However, the Central government has given unbridled power to the ED under section 19 of the Indian Penal Code by amending it. Using its ‘special power’ under this section, the ED might approach the court to allow it to arrest Lalu, Tejashwi and other family members concerned, in the manner it did in the context of Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia.”Another senior lawyer said that “many things depend on the court”. The maximum punishment in the cases slapped on Lalu and family members is seven years. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the accused persons shouldn’t be taken into custody in such cases if they are cooperating with the investigating agencies. But the investigating agencies succeeded in arresting Sisodia by procuring permission for the same from the lower judiciary,” the senior lawyer said, asking not to be named.A large section of lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians from Patna to Delhi believes that the Narendra Modi government had been consistently “misusing” the central investigating agencies – CBI, ED and Income Tax Department – against its political opponents.Guided missileThe Bihar chief minister and de-facto INDIA convener Nitish Kumar, who prior to August 2022 seldom questioned the Centre in the context of the central agencies, has now been repeatedly questioning the Narendra Modi government for the same.Recentl,y when asked if more opposition parties would join INDIA, Nitish said, “We are in touch with other parties but I can’t name them. If I name them, they might get cases lodged against them.” A senior INDIA leader hinted towards K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader.KCR was the first chief minister who landed in Patna soon after Nitish dumped the BJP in August 2022 and evinced interest in forming an anti-BJP alliance. However, in February-March 2022, the ED questioned Kavitha in the case related to the Delhi excise policy.INDIA leaders largely believe that the Centre has used ED director Mishra like a ‘guided missile’ against its opponents. For instance, the ED was hot on the heels of Nationalist Congress Party leader and now Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and three of his colleagues on the charges of multiple scams and money laundering.Even Modi during his speech at Bhopal alleged that the NCP leaders were involved in a scam worth Rs 80,000 crore. Ajit Pawar and his eight colleagues joined the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra only four days after the prime minister heaped corruption charges on them. Now, the investigating agencies have fallen silent on them.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, media educator and independent researcher on folklore.