Can’t Let Sons Die in Poverty: Lalu on Alleged Rs 500-Cr Land Scam

Sushil Kumar Modi asks Bihar CM to sack Lalu’s minister sons for getting benami properties in their name

RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav (Photo: PTI)

Lalu Prasad Yadav, the RJD chief and one of the main accused in the fodder scam said that both his sons who are ministers in Bihar and also accused of graft, are right to "do business because I don't want them to die in poverty", as NDTV reported.

Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav own about two acres of land worth Rs 60 crore on the outskirts of Patna. The third owner is their mother Rabri Devi. The land in question is being used to build Bihar’s largest mall by a legislator from Lalu’s party, who is a member of Nitish Kumar’s coalition government.

Half of the share in the mall being built will be of the builder, while the remaining half will be that of the company.

Lalu Prasad Yadav

The estimated worth of the project is 500 crores.

While he was the Union Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad gave entrepreneur Harsh Kochhar a 15-year lease to run two hotels for the railways in Puri and Ranchi in 2008. Before this, the two-acre Patna plot was sold to a company owned by the wife of Prem Gupta, an MP in Lalu’s party.

Over the past few years, the company name has been revised and the directors have been only Lalu’s sons and wife. The company’s iterations are all registered at the same address.

Sushil Kumar Modi had on 7 April demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sack Lalu Prasad's two minister sons for allegedly getting benami properties worth Rs 750 crore transferred in their names.

Asserting that all the transactions with regard to transfer of shares have been done as per the laws, Prasad said the charges were a conspiracy to tarnish the image of his family.

All the allegations levelled against my family (wife and two sons) are baseless and absurd. All the transactions have been done in accordance with the relevant provisions of the laws concerned.

Replying to the allegations, the RJD supremo claimed Kochar was allotted the lease of the two hotels through a competitive bidding and the highest bidder was given the lease of the two hotels.

Reacting to Prasad's comment, Modi claimed that his allegations have been proved "correct" as Prasad had himself "admitted" that he is the owner of the said land of two acres with an estimated cost Rs 500 crore.

I am happy that Lalu Prasad has admitted all the charges levelled by me. He has not denied any of the allegations such as Delight company, LARA or his sons’ shares in the company. Rather he tried to convince the people that it has been done in a legal and fair manner.

Seeking investigation into the "mall scam", Modi said that Kumar has been demanding from the Centre to attack benami properties and now he should act against his ministers as the properties lie in Bihar.

The same plot of land has also been subject to scrutiny by the government after Modi said that the Patna zoo bought Rs 44 lakh worth of soil after being influenced by Tej Pratap Yadav, whose forest department the zoo reports to. The zoo admitted buying soil without competitive bidding, but deny buying from Tej Pratap’s property.

Also Read: Deliberately Dragged Into the Mud: Lalu on Soil Scam Accusation

(With inputs from PTI)

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