RJD president Lalu Prasad has claimed that there is nothing wrong if his sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav are involved in business, as he does not want them to ‘die in poverty’. Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi along with his sons own two acres land on the outskirts of Patna, worth about Rs 60 crore. The land is being used to build Bihar’s biggest mall. The project is likely to cost nearly Rs 500 crore.
Lalu termed the allegations levelled by the Bharatiya Janata Party of him transferring the benami properties to his family as “baseless” and “absurd”. “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,” Prasad said on Sunday.
He also added that the two acres of land on which a mall is being built in Patna belonged to the company owned by his family. “The land belongs to the company in which three persons namely Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav are the shareholders,” he said.
Lalu’s clarification comes after BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had on April 7 demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should sack the RJD chief’s two minister sons for allegedly getting benami properties worth Rs 750 crore transferred in their names.
Modi had alleged that during his tenure as Railway Minister, Lalu had sold off two hotels in Puri and Ranchi controlled by the Railways to a hospitality chain owned by one Harsh Kochar in February 2005. He also claimed that Kochar, in turn, got two acres of land registered in the name of Delight Marketing Company Private Limited, in which Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and his two sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav were made directors.
However, the RJD chief denied the allegations claiming that Kochar was allotted the lease of the two hotels through a competitive bidding.
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