PMLA authority has held that 11 plots worth of 44.75 cr earlier attached by the Enforcement Directorate with connections to a firm linked to Lalu Prasad’s family are indeed money laundering assets and ordered the continuation of their attachment.
The land is around 3 acres and located in Danapur near Bihar’s Capital Patna, has been attached by the central agency in December last year in connection with IRCTC hotel allotment case where the agency alleges foul play.
The CBI in last year filed an FIR alleging that Mr Lalu Prasad during his stint as Railway minister handed over the maintenance of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism corporation hotels to a company in exchange of a bribe in the form of prime land, in 2004.
Tushar V Shah, a member of the adjudicating authority of the PMLA, issued an order stating, “I find that the immovable properties provisionally attached are involved in money laundering.”
Shah furthered by confirming the continuation of attachment of these properties for at least the next ninety days or till the case is sub-judice or there is an order for confiscation by the special court pertaining to these properties.
The Enforcement Directorate will now seize the property worth 44.75 crores when the ED attached the property last year, a shopping mall was supposed to be built on the land. The land pieces are under Lara Projects LLP. The managing partners of this firm are Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi and his two sons and Ms Meridian Construction India Limited, which is promoted by an MLA from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal.