After the infamous Fodder Scam of Lalu Yadav, his sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav are now under scanner in Soil Scam. While Lalu Yadav has rubbished all allegations, the Opposition is leaving no stone unturned to prove his family’s involvement in the scam
Sanjeev Kumar from Patna
Fodder Scam has not even been forgotten by now, and new scams are seeing light of the day in Bihar. Family of Lalu Prasad is in the midst of scams once again. However, the modus operandi in this new scam has been modified—“Give me land, and get work done.” It is alleged that Lalu Prasad snatched land from the people in lieu of getting their work done. and today he has become the owner of property assets worth millions. The working pattern involved generally was appointing a member of the family in the concerned client’s company as a Director, and thereafter emerging as major share holder in the company to become its sole owner.
During the Rabri Devi Government term (2000-2005), Om Prakash Katyal and Amit Katyal established a liquor factory under the aegis of their
company ‘Iceberg Industry Private Limited’. One more company was established on September 28, 2006 called ‘A K Infosystem Private Limited’ in which the same Amit Katyal along with his brother Rajesh Katyal were directors. This company saw appointment of Lalu Prasad’s sons Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav, Chanda Yadav, and Ragini Lalu as Directors in June, 2014. On June 13, 2014, Amit Katyal transferred all the shares of the company to Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Prasad Yadav. 3500 shares and 1500 shares were transferred to Rabrii Devi and Tejaswi Prasad Yadav respectively. Another chief stake holder Rajesh Katyal transferred his 500 shares first to Mahesh Sharma in between September 24, 2011 to September 28, 2011, which were later transferred to Rabri Devi by Mahesh Sharma. In this way, therefore, the company of Amit Katyal and
Rajesh Katyal came into the ownership of Lalu family.
The company had two
directors—Amit Katyal and Rakesh Katyal. However, Rakesh Katyal resigned on August 1, 2008, and Amit Katyal followed in the same way on January 19, 2015. This company had six additional directors. On June 19, 2014, Lalu Prasad’s sons and
daughters entered into the company in strange circumstances. On the same day, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, Tej Pratap and Chanda Yadav were made
additional directors in the company. Later on November 23, 2015, another daughter of Lalu Prasad, Ragini Lalu was made additional director too. On September 30, 2016, these four people ended up as directors of the company. The results of Bihar legislative Assembly were out on November 8, 2015. Soon after the result, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap resigned from the directorship the very next day on November 9. Presently two
daughters of Lalu Prasad—Chanda Yadav and Ragini are directors of this company. Thus Lalu Prasad ended up being the owner of this company by just spending 55 thousand rupees. Today the company holds a lot of land near Patna which has the sole
ownership of Lalu Prasad. Opposition alleges that Katyal family has
transferred the land in lieu of the
permission to set up the liquor factory in Bihar. Similarly the family also became the owner of two acres of
land worth 200 crore in lieu of
assisting Delight Marketing in
acquiring a hotel.
The scam related to Delight Marketing is strange again. This kick started with exposing of the mud scam. But the leads in the investigation
furthered the controversy. Earlier the estimate of the involved worth in the scam was about 90 lakh, but the lead in the fraud makes the involved worth about 750 crore. Earlier while this scam was only about mud, but now it has shown the involvement of land and a shopping mall as well. This scam also involves the family members of Lalu Prasad. Additionally, the links of this scam are also pointing towards 1, Anne Marg (Chief Minister’s residence).
The ex-deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and BJP leader of Legislative Assembly, Sushil Kumar Modi has revealed shocking documents. The biggest mall of the state is under
construction in the capital Patna. The ownership of the mall belongs to Delight Marketing Private Limited. Sons and daughters of Lalu
Prasad—Tejaswi Prasad Yadav (Deputy Chief Minister), Tej Pratap (Forest and Environment Minister), and Chanda Yadav are directors in the company. Mall is under construction at Saguna Mod near Patna in a land plot of 52 kathha. According to Modi,
within 3 months around 5 lakh cubic feet mud has been carried to Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park. This much quantity of mud has come out due to the construction of two underground floors in the same mall. For this mud, 90 lakh rupees have been paid from Bihar Forest Conservation Fund. However, established with a fund of 334.41 crore, the interest acquired in the fund is only spent on the conservation of forest animals. The mud settlement had no business whatsoever with the animal conservation. Contrarily, the dumping of extra mud created problems for the animals, because the dumping was done during nights.
Sushil Kumar Modi’s allegation has risen political
temperature in Bihar. Lalu Prasad first
retorted that he would file a case against Sushil Kumar Modi. Lalu also added that he
contributes cow dung for free to the biological park. After witnessing turmoil from the Opposition, it was rumoured that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had constituted an investigation in the
matter, when actually Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh has asked for files related to the issue. According to Singh, he had asked for the files to understand the tender process related to the mud supply. Opposition is reluctant to call the response as an effort to cover up the truth of the matter. Sushil Modi has appealed to the officers to function righteously so that they don’t end up behind the bars likewise in the Fodder Scam in the past. A senior leader of RJD has termed it as JD (U)’s design.
Both the sons of Lalu Prasad, Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav and his daughter, Chanda Yadav were appointed as directors in Delight Marketing Private Limited on June 26, 2014. This is the same company about which in 2008
allegations were made by present Water Resources Minister and close ally of Nitish Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh on the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad. he had alleged that Lalu had sold two hotels of Ranchi and Puri through illegal means to Harsh Kochar of Sujata Hotel. In lieu of this, Kochar via ten settlements in a single day transferred two acres of land to Delight Marketing company. Another daughter of Lalu Prasad, Ragini was also made director of the same company on September 30, 2016.
This scam was designed during the tenure of Lalu Prasad’s Railway Ministry. Lalu Prasad’s family members entered into the company in 2010. Name of the company was changed to ‘Lara’ Projects Private Limited on November 12, 2016. ‘Lara’ implies Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. This controversial mall is being constructed by the company of Saiyad Abu Dojan who is a RJD MLA from Sursand.
Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav together are Ministers in six Ministries. Both of them are said to be involved in fraud and malpractices to own land and shopping mall worth 750 crore rupees. What is most shocking is that while accepting directorship, Chanda Yadav mentioned her address as ‘1, Anne Marg, Sachivalaya PS, GPO Patna 800001’. BJP has enquired whether Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav while signing documents in the office of Company Registrar didn’t know that their present address is not 1, Anne Marg? Rabri Devi vacated the post in 2005 only. Then what does it mean to misuse the correspondence address of Chief Minister’s official
residence after nine years by Lalu Prasad’s family? Has this
correspondence address has been used consciously to assert power and dominance? Opposition has also seek Chief Minister’s reply as to sought what actions would be taken against those who had misuse the correspondence address of his official residence?
Everyone seems to be thinking what moved Katyal family out of the company and why they transferred their shares to Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav? What
reasons compelled the Katyal family to transfer the land ownership to Lalu Prasad’s family in a few years of the
purchase? After such a huge scam, how have Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav still
continued in the cabinet of
self-proclaimed good governance styled Nitish Kumar? n
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