SuMo links Tatas, Sahara to Lalu Prasad’s benami property

PATNA: Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday alleged the Sahara Group paid Rs 65 lakh by cheque for transfer of a TISCO guesthouse to Fairgrow Holding Private Limited, a shell firm allegedly associated with the family of incarcerated RJD chief Lalu Prasad, in 2012.
Modi made the claim on the basis of Income Tax investigations into the property, which was “provisionally” attached as a benami asset by the I-T department on April 26 this year.

Modi claimed the guesthouse’s ownership passed into the hands of the Lalu family as Lalu’s sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as well as daughters Chanda Yadav and Ragini Yadav became Fairgrow directors after the purchase of the guesthouse. They quit as directors before the 2015 assembly election.

According to Modi, the two-storey guesthouse, located in Patna’s Sheikhpura locality on Riding Road, is built on an area of 5,348 square feet of a compound of 5.22-kattha, or 7,105 square feet.

Citing the report of an ‘ameen’ — a government functionary who measures land — of January 25 this year, Modi said the land is officially mentioned as a Tisco property in Register II, the official book that contains the owner’s name. “The Register II entry has been left unchanged to create a false impression that the property still belongs to Tisco,” Modi said and added purchaser Rajesh Kumar of Sahara Group was shown in official sale records as a resident of S K Puri, Patna.

When contacted on Wednesday, Tata Steel’s corporate communications chief Kulvin Suri chose not to react on Modi’s charge. “We don’t want to say anything,” Suri told this reporter from Kolkata over the phone.

The Sahara Corporate Communications sent an email to this newspaper from corpcommlko7@gmail.com, stating the Sahara India Parivar did not have any relation with M/s Sahara Merchandise Pvt. Ltd. It also said the Sahara India Parivar or its any member neither has any business nor any relation of even an amount of one rupee (with Fairfrow). As for Rajesh Kumar, senior officer of Sahara India Parivar, a high-level internal inquiry has been initiated into his role, if any, in the deal, the email said.

RJD spokesman and MLA Shakti Singh, on the other hand, described Modi’s claims as baseless. “Modi is just beating around the bush to make insinuations about the sale and ownership of the property,” he said.

Modi said Fairgrow, existing since 1991, belonged to Lalu confidante Prem Chand Gupta who operated in league with the Sahara Group.

Modi had on Monday claimed former CM Lalu during the ten years of RJD government since 1990 in undivided Bihar extended many benefits to the Tata Steel in lieu of which he got the Tisco property in Patna.