Sushil Modi digs up more dirt on Lalu Prasad Yadav

PATNA: Senior BJP functionary Sushil Kumar Modi levelled on Tuesday fresh allegations against RJD chief Lalu Prasad's family of acquiring benami property through a shell firm.

Furnishing documents, Modi alleged that `Fairgrow Holdings Pvt Ltd', a shell firm incorporated with a fake address in Kolkata with fake shareholders, was first taken over by close confidants of RJD's Rajya Sabha member Prem Chand Gupta in 2006, and then transferred to Lalu's family in 2014. Gupta is a close confidant of Lalu and was minister of corporate affairs in UPA-I, when the RJD chief was railway minister.

Modi alleged that the company , which was neither doing any business nor had any employees, had acquired property worth Rs 76.32 lakh in 2008, though the registration documents of the firm state it was involved in manufacturing general purpose machinery .

As per the documents available on the website of the registrar of companies, Fairgrow Holdings was incorporated on November 18, 1991, and its registered office address is 1301 Bakul Bagan Road, Bhowanipur, Kolkata, West Bengal. Its directors at present are Lalu's daughters Chanda and Ragini Yadav.

“Also, the address of all the 20 shareholders mentioned in the returns filed in 2016 was the same -1301 Bakul Bagan. However, upon investigation, it was found that none of the persons lived at that address, which means all shareholders are fake,“ Modi said. He furnished documents stating that Lalu's sons -Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and health min ister Tej Pratap -were also appointed directors in the firm on June 19, 2014, but resigned before contesting the 2015 assembly elections. “Nitishji should show some guts and sack Lalu's sons, who are now making disrespectful state ments against him as well,“ he added.

Reacting to the al legations, the RJD state unit's chief spokesperson Shakti Ya dav said, “He (Sushil Kumar Modi) is suffering from Lalu phobia; that's why he keeps making absurd and baseless allegations.“