'Thenga Mila Hai': Tejashwi Claims 'Used' Jewellery Of His Sisters Were Shown As Recovery By ED

Tejashwi Yadav rubbished the claims by Enforcement Directorate that proceeds of crime worth Rs 600 crore were detected during the searches at his family's premises,

Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Monday claimed that his married sisters and in-laws were made to take off jewellery and photographs of the ornaments were shown as recovery by the ED during searches on premises of his family members in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam, PTI reported.

Rubbishing the claims by Enforcement Directorate that proceeds of crime worth Rs 600 crore were detected during the searches, the RJD leader challenged the agency to release the seizure list.

"People are saying a lot of wealth has been recovered from me, 'thenga mila hai'. I can challenge them, issue the seizure list, or I'll issue it," ANI quoted Tejashwi as saying.

The deputy CM said the investigative agencies are after him as if he is the "real Adani", referring to businessman Gautam Adani who is facing allegations of stock manipulation and corporate fraud after a damning report by a US short seller.

"The CBI and ED have either got confused or my face matches with Adani's? Ignoring the scam of Rs 80,000 crore, they have been raiding (my house) every two to four days for so many years, and they get nothing," he said.

Tejashwi also alleged that the ED had finished its raid at his Delhi house last week "in half an hour" but its officials stayed on for hours awaiting "clearance from above".

"Be it Union Home Minister Amit Shah or anybody else, the director who repeats the same script for these agencies must now be changed," news agency PTI quoted the RJD leader as saying. 

He added, "We are not, like the BJP-RSS, students of entire political science. We are practitioners of real politics and have the conviction and public support to take them on. But they are scared and are trying to run away from the political battle."

Last week, the ED said in a statement that it seized "unaccounted cash" of Rs 1 crore and "detected proceeds of crime worth Rs 600 crore" after it raided RJD chief Lalu Prasad's family in connection with a money laundering case linked to the railways land-for-jobs 'scam'.

The ED had launched searches on Friday at multiple locations linked to Lalu Prasad's family members, including that of his son Tejashwi in Delhi.

The CBI had also recently questioned Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi -- former chief ministers of Bihar -- in the case.

The CBI has alleged that people were given employment in the Railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and its associates during the RJD supremo's tenure as Railway minister in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009.