26-year-old Tejashwi owns 26 properties: BJP

Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is in the eye of the storm ever since CBI named him as an accused in the FIR lodged in the land-for-hotels scam, has been charged with owning 26 prime properties in Bihar as well as Delhi. The fresh round of allegations, backed by substantial evidence, was made by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi here on Tuesday.

“Out of these 26 properties, 13 were owned by Tejashwi when he was a minor, while he became the owners of the rest 13 properties after he turned an adult,” said Modi.

Modi quoted the CBI FIR, a copy of which is with the Deccan Herald, which has booked Tejashwi under Section 120 (B) and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and named him as an accused along with Lalu, Rabri Devi and others in the land-for-hotels case.

The CBI, which has entrusted the case to its DSP Sanjay Dubey for further investigation, has said in the FIR that “the shares of the company (Delight Marketing) having a net worth of Rs 32.5 crores was transferred by the family members of Prem Chand Gupta (RJD Rajya Sabha member) to the family members of Lalu Prasad for a nominal amount of 64 lakhs.”

“When the shares were transferred to Tejashwi in 2014, he was 24 years old, and not a minor as claimed by the Deputy CM. One should understand that there is a difference between a police FIR and a CBI FIR,” said Modi adding that the central investigating agency does its homework before lodging a FIR.

It is worth mentioning here that the CBI raided Lalu-Rabri residence on July 7 to investigate a land deal in which an industrialist Harsh Kochar was given two railway hotels – one in Ranchi and the other in Puri (Odisha) when Lalu was Railway Minister. In return, a land in Patna of around two acres was transferred in February 2005 to Delight Marketing Private Limited whose director was RJD MP Prem Chand Gupta, Lalu’s key aide and also a Union Minister in UPA-I. Lalu’s two sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav and daughter Chanda Yadav were made directors of the company. Later, the company Delight Marketing Private Ltd was renamed as Lara Projects Private Limited (La-Ra named after Lalu and Rabri).