Benami properties: BJP's Sushil Modi demands sacking of Lalu Yadav' minister sons Bihar cabinet

Patna: Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday demanded the sacking of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's two minister sons - Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav from the Bihar cabinet in the wake of CBI lodging an FIR against them.

"Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has time and again said that either he will survive or corruption in the state. I am hopeful that he will not be silent and will take action in the case," Sushil Modi told reporters here.

"BJP demands immediate dismissal of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and his brother and minister Tej Pratap Yadav from the state cabinet," he said.

The investigating agency during the day carried out searches in 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurugram after registering a corruption case against Prasad and his family members, including Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar in a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating and corruption.

CBI has registered case against Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and his son Tejashwi, former IRCTC MD, P K Goyal, Sarla Gupta who is the wife of Yadav's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, among others.

The CBI has lodged FIR for alleged irregularities in the tender for development, maintenance and operation of BNR Hotels in Ranchi and Puri, awarded to private Sujata Hotels in 2006.

Bihar's Water Resources Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh and then senior JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwary had alleged that Lalu Prasad as railway minister had sold off Railways' two hotels at Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel's Harsh Kochar. In turn, Kochar was given two acres registered in the name of 'Delight Marketing Company Pvt Ltd', the shares of which were later transferred to Lalu Prasad's family, Modi claimed.

The issue of corrupt land deals that included two acres at Saguna Mor in Patna on which Bihar's biggest mall is being developed, was first of all raised by Singh and Tiwary during a press conference held on August 12, 2008, he said.

The then JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and Singh had submitted a memorandum containing 600 pages of documents to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh seeking action against Prasad for the alleged land deals as a railway minister, Sushil Modi said.

"The credit must be given to Singh and Tiwary," he said adding it is another matter that Tiwary is now speaking in favour of Prasad. "It was Tiwary who once said that Lalu Prasad is a habitual offender who did not learn any lesson from the fodder scam," he added.

Sushil Modi, who was accompanied by former Bihar BJP president Nand Kishore Yadav and state unit vice-president Devesh Kumar, said that Prasad has not spoken anything on the corrupt land deals that he did as a "quid pro quo" measure as a railway minister but went on to explaining the process of award of tender for hotels.
Referring to RJD's allegations of vendetta politics in the CBI raids, he asked RJD leaders to talk on the merit of the case.

"RJD and Congress are not talking or discussing on the merit of the case. Why was Delight Marketing Company Ltd handed over to Prasad's family, why was its name changed to LARA LLP, how did Tejashwi become the owner of crores of rupees by merely investing Rs 4 lakh in the company ... They should talk on merit," Sushil Modi said.

The raids had nothing to do with RJD's proposed rally on August 27 in Patna, he added.