PATNA: The Income Tax department has provisionally attached three properties in Patna belonging to former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi of RJD and her fifth daughter Hema Yadav for 90 days after investigations ascertained that the properties were acquired illegally. “The information has been sent to both the persons and they will soon be summoned for interrogation,” said an official of the Income Tax department.
The three properties were gifted to Rabri Devi, wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Hema Yadav by two of the family’s domestic servants, who, the IT officials found, were too poor to acquire them in the first place.
Two of these properties — a 2.5-decimal plot at Phulwarisharif on Patna’s outskirts and a 7.5-decimal plot at Danapur — were gifted to Rabri Devi and Hema Yadav respectively by Lalan Choudhary, a servant of their family, in 2014. Another plot of 7.5 decimal was gifted to Hema Yadav by Hrudayanand Chaudhary in 2014.
Lalan Choudhary, a resident of Siyadih village under Barhariya police station of Siwan district who worked at Lalu’s cattle-shed and whose name figures in BPL list, told the IT officials during interrogation that he had bought the two plots from farmers by paying them Rs 30 lakh and Rs 62 lakh. Hrudayanand Chaudhary also said he had bought the plot from a farmer by paying him Rs 62 lakh.
“Both these men are very poor and do not file income tax returns. They never had so much income to buy these plots. The money was clearly paid by someone else,” said an IT official.
Lalan Choudhary and Hrudayanand Chaudhary said they regarded Rabri Devi as their sister and gifted her and her daughter the plots of land.
After interrogating Rabri Devi and Hema Yadav in connection with the ownership of these three plots, the Income Tax department may attach the permanently within the 90 days, said sources.