Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday rubbished the RJD's allegations of him profiting from his elder brother's "shell companies".
He said he had nothing do with his brother's business and hit back at the RJD for evading his allegation that deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav owns AB Exports Private Ltd with property worth Rs 115 crore at current prices.
"Lalu's son Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and his (Lalu's) wife are owners, directors and shareholders in the company," Modi said. "I am not partner, neither owner nor director of any company. If any of my relatives is doing business, should I be held responsible? They (RJD) should ask them (his relatives) instead of me."
He added: "Am I owner of or director in any company? Both sons of Lalu are directors and owners (of companies). I was a member of the ABVP (the RSS youth wing) for a long time and now I do full-time politics. I have no business."
He also trashed the RJD's allegation that the graph of his brother's businesses went up with his own political stock. "The company which the RJD leader named has not done any business for the past 20 years in Bihar. How can I help a company outside Bihar? I must also say that during the Lalu-Rabri regime nobody wanted to do business in Bihar and they all ran away from the state," Modi said.
He said the RJD has no proof to support its claims whereas he had furnished documents that show Lalu's sons are owners of A K Infosystem, AB Exports, Delight Marketing, and Lara Projects LLP.
He also hit back at Tejashwi's taunt on Sunday that the BJP leader could buy Tejashwi's Delhi property at 50 per cent discount: "Even after the 50 per cent discount I cannot purchase Lalu's family property because it is worth millions. If he will give me 99 per cent discount then also I cannot purchase it. Only Tata and Birla can purchase Lalu's property."
He alleged that Lalu had started pressuring his family members to make him back off. "Lalu had put pressure on my family during the fodder scam but I did not back off and he is doing the same thing now. I know him for the past 40 years and this time also I will expose him," Modi asserted.
"Nitish should break his silence over the issue. Keeping the head down like an ostrich will not stop the storm. He should immediately sack Lalu's both sons for hiding assets in their election affidavits."
RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha, however, demanded a "proper probe" into the assets of Modi and his brother. Former RJD MP Jagdanand Singh attacked Modi for raising questions over the "clean chit" given by chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh in what the BJP leader had called a soil scam at Patna zoo.
Questioning Modi's claim that work worth Rs 90 lakh was carried out at the zoo without floating tender, Jagdanand said: "When Sushil Modi was forest and environment minister between 2011 and 2013, work worth Rs 175 crore was done without tender. Does he mean that work was illegal? Similarly, work worth Rs 600 crore was executed in the department during the second tenure of the NDA in Bihar. Does it mean that all the work was done illegally?"
