Plots linked to kin of Lalu attached

PATNA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday seized a total of 11 plots of land in Patna worth ₹44.75 crore — earlier provisionally attached by the agency — in the name of a firm linked to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s family as part of the IRCTC hotel money laundering case.

The agency had been allowed to take possession of the seized assets by a designated PMLA authority recently.

The latest action was undertaken under Section 8 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

ED official said that possession documents were notified and a notice board, bearing the signature of assistant director of the Delhi zonal office-i, Nitin Yadav, was put up at the contiguous plots, measuring about three acres, in Danapur police station area on the outskirts of Patna.

In the notice, the adjudicating authority ordered that “all concerned are hereby prohibited and restrained until further order of the undersigned from charging the aforesaid property by gift, mortgage, pledge or otherwise in any manner whatsoever”.

The PMLA authority, in its recent order, said assets were “involved in money laundering”.

The land pieces are in the name of Delight Marketing Co Pvt Ltd, now Lara Projects LLP, whose managing partner is Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, partners are his sons Tejashwi Prasad and Tej Pratap, and Meridian Construction India Limited promoted by Abu Dojana, an RJD MLA.

When the ED attached these assets last year, a shopping mall was supposed to come up on these plots.

It had recorded the statements of Rabri, Tejashwi, and others.

In July last year, the agency registered a case against Lalu, his family, and others under provisions of the PMLA.

Before this, the CBI registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches on the properties of Lalu and others. Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing Company and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.