(TOI)
In a curious turn to the alleged ‘benami’ property of RJD president Lalu Prasad‘s family, BJP said on Wednesday that the documents exposing the deal were provided to it by “someone close” to JD(U) president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi has held several press conferences during the last one week and released papers in public domain to “expose” Lalu. “We are not in office in Bihar. We do not have access to official files. Obviously, an insider from the ruling JD(U) helped us launch the attack on Lalu,” leader of opposition in the assembly Prem Kumar told TOIover phone on Wednesday.
Releasing the documents to the media, Modi has alleged that Lalu’s family has stakes in the firm that owns a Rs 200-crore land at Patna’s Saguna Mor on which a Rs 500-crore mall is coming up . The land was “gifted” to Lalu’s wife and former CM Rabri Devi by a hospitality firm in 2005 in lieu of the leasing out of railways’ two hotels to the firm in 2006, when Lalu was the railway minister, Modi alleged. He further charged that a beer baron also gifted a piece of land to Lalu’s family in lieu of the government help to set up a beer brewery firm at Bihta when Rabri was CM.
Prem, however, did not disclose the name of the Nitish aide who provided the documents to BJP. “Anyone in opposition gets such sensitive documents only through people in power,” Prem said, adding that BJP took it as its responsibility to expose the wrongdoings. JD(U) termed Prem’s “revelation” baseless. “The matter pertaining to Modi and his role as a whistleblower is between BJP and RJD,” JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar said.
