The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday hailed Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi for unravelling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's link with sand mafia in the state.
BJP leader S. Prakash said that Modi even in the past, while being in the opposition, had relentlessly worked to unveil illicit connections of Lalu.
"Lalu Prasad Yadav is an established corrupt, convicted politician. And, his son was also in the same bandwagon. Several corrupt deals were exposed by Sushil Modi even when he was the opposition leader. Because of his (Lalu) involvement in corrupt activities, Nitish Kumar ji distanced himself from him. Sushil Modi is showing what Lalu Prasad Yadav stands for," said Prakash.
Modi on Friday alleged that Lalu's family has links with the sand mafia in the state.
Addressing a press conference in Patna, Modi revealed that properties owned by Lalu Yadav's wife Rabri Devi was bought by people involved in sand mafia.
"People like Arun Yadav, an MLA of RJD, have been buying property which belongs to Rabri Devi. Arun Yadav's sons, Rajesh Kumar Ranjan and Deepu Kumar, along with his wife Kiran Devi have spent Rs. 2. 56 crore in black money to buy these flats," he said.
Modi further accused Arun Yadav of forming a company to portray the money as white money.
In addition to it, the Deputy Chief Minister mentioned about the names of criminals with whom Lalu and his MLAs allegedly have links.
"The Bihar police caught a criminal, Ranjit Chaudhary, on Friday. He admitted to buying illegal arms from Arun Yadav," he said, further mentioning that the police have arrested Arun Yadav's father-in-law for possessing illegal arms.
He questioned the authorities in Bihar and demanded a probe as to how the sand mafias managed to buy 8 plots owned by Rabri Devi in a single day.
Modi reiterated that such evidences continue to show Lalu Yadav's link to illegal properties and urged him to come up with an answer.
These statements come after Sushil Kumar Modi on 15 August pledged to 'expose' RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's nexus with the sand and mining mafia in the next three days, saying he had ample evidence to call for yet another criminal probe against "Bihar's most corrupt family".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)