Soon, I-T dept to file criminal prosecution against Lalu's family members

Prosecution to be in connection with I-T dept's probe into land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore

The Income Tax (I-T) Department will soon file a prosecution complaint against some family members of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, including his daughter Misa Bharti, in connection with its probe into land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore, officials privy to the investigation said.

They said the agency will file the complaint in a competent court against at least six family members of Lalu, against whom it recently slapped charges under the new and stringent anti-benami assets act.

Some of them, including Bharti and her husband Shailesh, may also be summoned again for further questioning in the case, they said.

The department had served notices of attachment of assets in June to Lalu, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son and former Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, daughters Chanda and Ragini Yadav, MP daughter Bharti and son-in-law Kumar.

The I-T department had attached about a dozen plots and buildings in Delhi and Bihar including a farm house and land in the Palam Vihar area, a residential building in the upmarket New Friends Colony area of south Delhi, nine plots on a 256.75 decimal land area in Phulwari Sharif area in Patna, where a shopping mall was being constructed, among few others in the same area in Bihar's capital.

The department has said these alleged benami assets bear a "deed" value of about Rs 9.32 crore but the taxman has estimated their current market value at Rs 170-180 crore.

Benami properties are those in which the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name (benamidar) the property has been purchased.

The Lalu family has called these cases to be borne out of "political vendetta" against them.