ED seizes under construction mall being built by Lalu's family

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday seized an under construction mall which was being built by Lalu Yadav's family in Patna. Reports say that Bihar's biggest mall was supposed to come up there, but the construction was stopped and the land was attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

In April this year, the Income-Tax department had attached a property worth more than Rs 3 crore near Patna, suspected to be a benami asset held by Lalu's family members who are facing investigation in a land-for-hotels scam.

Last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached a three-acre plot in Patna in relation to the railway hotel scam. The land was allegedly transferred to Yadav's family as quid pro quo in 2005, when the RJD chief was railways minister and exchanged favours to award the contract for the upkeep of IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels

Prasad, a former Bihar chief minister, is currently serving sentences in a number of fodder scam cases. Members of his family have been named in cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate and the IT department in connection with the land-for-hotels scam.

The scam relates to transfer of prime land properties to Prasad's family by a hotelier brothers of Patna in return for getting contract for running two Railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri when Prasad was the Railway Minister in UPA-I government. On one such land measuring 3 acre, Bihar's biggest mall is proposed. But the construction was stopped and the land has been attached by the Enforcement Directorate.