A raid on the residence of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad in Patna was confirmed by party State president Ram Chandra Purve. He said that “under a well-planned conspiracy, a raid has been conducted at the instruction of the Central government”.
Speaking to journalists outside Mr. Prasad’s residence, Mr. Purve said that ever since the RJD chief called for a “ BJP bhagao, Desh bachao (kick out BJP, save the country)” rally in Patna on August 27 in which all non-BJP parties would participate, the BJP-led Central government was after him and wanted to send him to jail.
“But even if our party leader is sent to jail, the rally will be held and the whole Patna would be covered by it”, he said.
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Amid the developments, all eyes are on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is recuperating at Rajgir, 110 km away from Patna in Nalanda district, as what action he would take after the CBI registered a case against his Deputy in the Cabinet, Tejaswi Yadav, younger son of Mr. Prasad, and Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav, the older son, in alleged financial irregularities and raided their residence on Friday morning.
Mr. Kumar has called all top officials of the government to Rajgir to mull over the emerged situation.
The BJP, on its part, has thanked Mr. Kumar for exposing the tender scam of two hotels first in 2008. “It was Nitish Kumar and his government which first exposed these financial irregularities in awarding two BNR hotels to the railways in 2008 and two of its party leaders had submitted the related papers to the Prime Minister's Office for action against Mr Prasad..I’m thankful to Nitish Kumar for this on which the NDA government has taken action”, said senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
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Mr Modi, of late, has come out with charges of alleged dubious financial irregularities and land deals done by Mr. Prasad and his family members.
“Now, it is to be seen what action Nitish Kumar takes against Lalu’s two sons who are ministers in his cabinet…after the CBI registered a case against them and raided their premises, Mr. Kumar should immediately sack them from his Cabinet”, Mr. Modi told journalists.
Sources from inside Mr. Prasad's residence told The Hindu that over two dozen CBI officials are searching each and every corner of the residence, looking for documents. From bathroom to the bedroom, they were searching even as some family members started performing religious discourses, said a source.