Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday dubbed as "rumours" the claim of the Enforcement Directorate that proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 600 crore were detected during searches on premises owned by him and close family members. The RJD leader, who is currently away in Delhi beside his wife who is expecting their first child, also said the BJP will be left embarrassed if he made public the "panchnama" (seizure list) signed after the raids.
"Just recall, in 2007, transactions worth Rs 8,000 crore, including a mall and hundreds of land plots, were alleged", tweeted Yadav, in an obvious reference to the alleged land-for-hotels scam pertaining to his father Lalu Prasad's tenure as the railway minister. Now facing the heat in the land-for-jobs 'scam' pertaining to, roughly, the same period, Yadav also recalled his name being linked to a mall seized in Gurugram, which turned out to be owned by a private company.
The RJD had threatened legal action against media outlets for "wrongly" reporting that Yadav, the party supremo's son and heir apparent, owned the commercial establishment. "The BJP government (at the Centre) spreading rumours again, quoting sources. It should have asked its spin doctors to first settle the account on the previous operations, before coming up with the new tale of Rs 600 crore", the RJD leader said.
Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate said it has 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'. "Let them make public the panchnama (seizure list) signed after the raids. If we do so on our own, think of the embarrassment that these BJP leaders will have to face", added Yadav, who peppered his two tweets with quite a few smileys to assert that he was taking it all on the chin.
The ED had launched raids on Friday at multiple locations linked to Prasad's family members, including that of his son Tejashwi in Delhi. The Central Bureau of Investigation had recently questioned Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi -- former chief ministers of Bihar -- in the case.
