'Summer of discontent' begins for Lalu, family

The ‘summer of discontent’ has just begun for Lalu Prasad and his family this June.  Till a fortnight ago, the RJD president used to boast about how he would go to Chennai, and invite DMK chief M Karunanidhi and other leaders for his August 27 rally in Patna. But the law of the land is fast catching up with him.

For the next 10 days, Lalu will be busy fighting legal battles in connection with the fodder scam cases.

His son Tej Pratap, oldest daughter Misa Bharti and son-in-law Shailesh Kumar, too, will face the heat as they have been asked to appear before the investigating authorities concerned to explain their highly controversial land deals.
A special court in Ranchi has asked Lalu to appear before it on June 9 in a fodder scam case.

The court summons was issued after the Supreme Court reinstated conspiracy charges against Lalu for the “fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 90 lakh” from the Deoghar treasury (then in undivided Bihar, now in Jharkhand).

Prior to this, Misa, a Rajya Sabha MP, will have to appear before an investigating officer on Tuesday in connection with the Rs 1,000-crore benami land deals and a tax evasion case.

I-T officials have also asked Kumar, who was in the news recently for running Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd (a company ostensibly named after Misa and him), to appear before the probe team on June 7. The firm Mishail reportedly entered into a benami deal in purchase of a farmhouse in Delhi.

Tej, state forest and environment minister, has been asked by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited to explain on June 12 how he acquired a petrol pump on the outskirts of Patna.

It is said that Tej, who also holds the health portfolio,  furnished wrong information about the petrol pump site, which he reportedly never owned.
DH News Service