The Bihar unit of the BJP on Friday alleged that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s two sons — Tej Pratap and Tejaswi — and his wife Rabri Devi were involved in a multi-crore land scam. The allegation comes days after the BJP had charged Mr Tejaswi Prasad Yadav with conflict of interest as Forest and Environment Minister in a soil purchase contract, worth ₹90 lakh, for the Patna Zoo.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to sack both Mr. Lalu Prasad’s sons from the cabinet and order a thorough inquiry into the land scam.
Showing about 280 pages of documents related to the “dubious sale and purchase of the land”, Mr Modi further said, “I’ve all the authentic documents to prove my charges and we’ll take this scam too to the extent of the fodder scam.”
Ownership transferred
Mr Modi said the land on which a shopping mall is being constructed by a company owned by an RJD MLA, was first given to Delight Marketing Company Pvt. Ltd in 2005 by Harsh and Vinay Kochar, prominent hoteliers of Patna. The Kochars, alleged Mr Modi, were given two railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri to run when Mr Lalu Prasad was union railway minister.
Mr. Modi alleged that, “In 2010 Lalu’s family members, his wife Rabri Devi, two sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav, daughters Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav made an entry into the company as directors but on November 12, 2016 the company changed its name to LaRa Projects Pvt. Ltd and just two months back on February 14, 2017, only Rabri Devi, Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav remained directors of the company.”
“LaRa means Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi…Rabri Devi owns 2,402 and both Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav own 800 shares each of the company today... The company, interestingly, did no business in last 15 years but added ‘construction’ in its objective in 2015,” said Mr Modi, who was earlier in exposing the multi-crore fodder scam against Lalu Prasad Yadav.
“Nitish Kumar always says he neither protects anyone, nor implicates anyone…So we expect a thorough probe into this land scam too, ” Mr Modi told journalists.
Neither the JD(U) nor Mr Lalu Prasad have responded to the allegations so far.
