ED raids Delhi premises of RJD MP & daughter of Lalu Yadav, Misa Bharti in money laundering case

Image: ANI/File

New Delhi: On Saturday, ED raided Delhi premises of RJD MP Misa Bharti, her husband and a firm linked to them in a money laundering case. Misa Bharti is the daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. She, in 2014, had unsuccessfully contested for the Lok Sabha seat of Patliputra and had lost to RJD rebel Ram Kripal Yadav who had joined BJP. The raids were underway at three locations, including her residence in Sainik Farm. Misa Bharti and her husband Shailash Kumar are involved in an alleged Benami land deals case and were called for questioning by tax officials in June. The I-T department attached a total of 12 plots of Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav and ex chief minister Rabri Devi, and sisters Ragini and Chanda Yadav. One farmhouse in Delhi and one bungalow in New Friends Colony are also attached. The market value of the total attached property is worth Rs. 175 crore, whereas the book value of the attached property is Rs. 9.32 crore. The I-T department had earlier seized Benami properties of Misa Bharti, Shailesh Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav. Two summons to Misa were also issued, but after she failed to appear, the I-T department proceeded to seize the properties which were raided in May. On June 13, the I-T Department summoned Shailesh Kumar , in connection with the benami assets and tax evasion case registered against him. On June 7, the I-T department slapped a fine of Rs. 10,000 against Shailesh on account of not appearing for interrogation. Earlier, Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh were summoned by the I-T department in connection with a 'benami' assets case. The summons were issued days after the arrest of Bharti's Chartered Accountant (CA) Rakesh Agrawal, in connection with an Enforcement Directorate probe into a Rs. 8,000 crore money laundering racket, involving two Delhi-based businessmen and a few political entities. On Friday, hours after his CBI raided his premises and filed criminal conspiracy case against him,  RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav claimed action against him to be a result of ‘political vendetta’ by the BJP. "Listen, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah...I may be hanged but before that I will uproot you and smash your arrogance to smithereens. You are trying to incite conflict in the grand alliance. We and people of Bihar understand this," a combative Lalu asserted at a hurriedly called press conference in Patna, hinting at the underlying tensions in the ruling alliance. "We have decided to uproot and finish the BJP. This case has nothing to do with out grand alliance...it is intact," he asserted. The RJD leader blamed PM Modi, Amit Shah and the RSS for conspiring against him because the government wanted him to surrender before them. "This is a conspiracy against me and my family. Modi is going towards dictatorship," he said. He said the raids were because he had initiated a political movement against the BJP. "On August 27, we are holding rallies in Bihar to tell the people how myself and my family are being attacked due to political vendetta," Lalu Prasad told the press in Ranchi. The case relates to alleged manipulation in award of contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways--IRCTC-- when the RJD chief was railway minister in the UPA government. Rebuffing charges that he favoured Sujata Hotels through IRCTC while he was the Railway Minister, Lalu said the decision on handeling over hotels was taken before I took over as Railway minister in 2004. He claimed the contracts for maintenance of the hotels were awarded on the basis of "open bidding" and no irregularities took place. Lalu also criticised the CBI's action of naming his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, and son Tejashwi, the current deputy chief minister, as accused in the case. He said when the alleged irregularities took place, Rabri was not a public servant and Tejashwi was a minor. Lalu Prasad dismissed the allegations saying the railway's catering service is an autonomous body and "not a single file from it comes to the Railways Minister". "I dare anybody to show that there was one file, one approval, which I gave as the Railways Minister. In 2006, some hotels were given to private parties through open tender to the highest bidder," he said. (With inputs from ANI)