Patna: RJD chief Lalu Yadav and his family facing investigation in connection with benami land deals was in for another setback on Thursday after the income-tax (I-T) department ordered attachment of properties worth several crore in and around Patna. Sources claimed that at least three properties in the outskirts of Patna have come under the scanner of the I-T department. Reports available with this newspaper suggest that all three plots were donated to former CM Rabri Devi and her daughter Hema Yadav by two helpers of Lalu Yadav in 2008. Action against Rabri Devi and her daughter was initiated after they couldn’t convince the officials investigating the case about the source of these properties. The RJD chief is currently serving jail term after being convicted in the fodder scam and being treated at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi. In a similar case last year, the I-T department had attached a multi-storey building worth Rs 3 crore in Sheikhpura area, which was allegedly owned by a shell company, Fair Grow Holdings Private Ltd. Sources claim that Lalu Yadav’s elder son, Tej Pratap, and his two sisters, Chanda and Ragini Yadav, were earlier directors of the company.
The I-T department had also provisionally attached two plots in Patna last year on suspicion that they were acquired by the family through benami transactions.
More than a dozen properties worth Rs 165 crore, spread across Delhi and Patna and belonging to Lalu Yadav’s family, were seized by the I- T department in September 2017.
The action had triggered corruption allegations against Lalu Yadav and his family, which had led to the collapse of the grand alliance government in July 2017.
