New Delhi, March 11
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has seized Rs 1 crore “unaccounted cash” and also detected Rs 600 crore as proceeds of crime after it raided 24 places linked to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s family in connection with its probe under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case linked to the railways land for job ‘scam’.
In an official statement the ED said, the investigation is underway to unearth more investments made on behalf of Prasad’s family and their associates in various sectors, including real estate, at various places.
The ED had launched raids on Friday at multiple locations linked to Prasad’s family members including that of his son, who is also the deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav in Delhi.
“Searches resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore, foreign currency including USD 1,900, 540 grams of gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery worth about Rs1.25 crore,” the ED statement read.
The ED had launched raids on Friday at multiple locations linked to Prasad’s family members including that of his son, who is also the deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav in Delhi.
“Searches resulted in the recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 crore, foreign currency including USD 1,900, 540 grams of gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery worth about Rs1.25 crore,” the ED statement read.
“Several other incriminating documents, including various property documents, sale deeds, etc., which are held in the names of family members (of Lalu Prasad) and benamidaars indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices found,” it said.
The ED said the raids resulted in the “detection of proceeds of crime amounting to about Rs 600 at this point of time which is in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 crore and transactions of Rs 250 crore routed through various benamidaars”.
Making a specific mention about Tejashwi Yadav, the ED said a property situated at D-1088, New Friends Colony in south Delhi is an independent 4-storied bungalow registered in the name of AB Exports Private Limited. This company has been called a “beneficiary firm” in this case, it added.
The ED said this company is “owned and controlled” by Tejashwi Yadav and his family and this house was shown to have been acquired at a value of a mere Rs 4 lakh, while the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 crore.
“It is suspected that huge amount of cash/proceeds of crime has been infused in purchasing this property and a few Mumbai-based entities, dealing in the gems and jewellery sector were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard,” the ED alleged.
“The property has been though, on paper, declared as an office of AB Exports Private Limited and AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, it is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav,” it said.
The agency said its probe found that four parcels of lands acquired by the family of Lalu Prasad in just Rs 7.5 lakh from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, ex-RJD MLA, by Rabri Devi with huge gains at 3.5 crore in a “collusive” deal.
The probe found that a major portion of the amount thus received, was transferred to the account of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, it further alleged. The probe also found that in a similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates for Group D jobs in the Railways.
“It has been revealed during the investigation that in many Railways Zones, more than 50 percent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families’ constituencies,” it said.
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