PATNA: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family has close links to Bihar’s sand mining mafia and gained recently by selling three flats to a mafia leader in an apartment block Patna owned by Rabri Devi in Patna, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP alleged on Monday.
Subhash Prasad Yadav, who Modi described as “Bihar’s biggest sand mining mafia leader today,” purchased the three flats in a week by paying Rs 1.62 crore at a time when properties owned by the Yadav’s were being attached by enforcement directorate (ED) and the income-tax (I-T) department.
“All the companies owned by Subhash Prasad Yadav and engaged in sand mining have Lalu Prasad Yadav and RJD’s Rajya Sabha member Premchand Gupta’s protection. Subash Prasad Yadav has been Lalu’s right-hand man,” Sushil Kumar Modi told journalists.
Presenting documents pertaining to the sale of the three flats in Marchhia Devi Complex, Sushil Kumar Modi said Subhash Prasad Yadav is the director of the three companies – Broadson Construction Pvt Ltd, Bansidhar Construction Pvt Ltd and Mor Mukut Construction Pvt Ltd. They have been given mining contracts worth Rs 237 crore in Patna, Saran, Bhojpur, Vaishali, Jehanabad and Arwal districts.
“On June 13, 2017, Subhash Prasad Yadav bought two flats owned by Rabri Devi – a 1,271-sq ft flat for Rs 52.76 lakh, and a 1,400-sq ft flat for Rs 58 lakh. Similarly, on June 6, 2017, Subhash Prasad Yadav’s wife Lalti Devi bought a third flat in the same complex by paying Rabri Devi Rs 61.82 lakh,” said Modi, who became deputy chief minister on July 27 after chief minister Nitish Kumar of JD(U) allied with BJP by breaking the grand alliance government.
It is possible that Rabri Devi hurriedly sold away three of the 18 flats she owns in Marchhia Devi Complex in fear of these properties getting under the ED or I-T scanner, said Modi.
“Why is it that only the sand mafia leader bought the three flats in just a week and at a time when investigations into the Lalu family’s benami properties were on?” asked Modi.
The latest allegations come days after Bihar’s new JD(U)-BJP government began a crackdown on illegal sand mining and arrested dozens of people. The government appointed 1990-batch IAS officer KK Pathak as principal secretary, mines and geology department, to take on the state’s sand mafia.
KK Pathak is reputed for being strict and for implementing prohibition stringently.
“BJP is keen to put roadblocks on our (RJD) proposed rally in Patna on August 27, in which many non-BJP parties across the country will participate. This is why they are raising these entirely baseless matters,” said RJD legislator Bhai Birendra.