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‘Thenga mila hai’: Tejashwi mocks ED raid claims, says ‘as if I am real Adani’
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it seized one crore rupees in "unaccounted cash" and detected proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore after raids against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family in arelated money laundering case.
Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Monday dismissed the claims by Enforcement Directorate that proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore were detected during its money laundering probe in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam, challenging the agency to release the seizure list.
“People are saying a lot of wealth has been recovered from me, 'thenga mila hai'. I can challenge them, issue the seizure list, or I'll issue it,” he told reporters in Patna.
Dismissing the claims as ‘false propaganda’, Tejashwi said the investigative agencies are after him as if he's the “real Adani”, referring to the embattled billionaire Gautam Adani facing allegations of stock manipulation and corporate fraud.
“The CBI and ED have either got confused or my face matches with Adani's? Ignoring the scam of ₹80,000 crores, they have been raiding (my house) every two to four days for so many years, and they get nothing.”
On Saturday, the ED said proceeds of crime worth ₹600 crore were detected during its probe into alleged land-for-jobs scam in which former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad and his family members have been named as accused. (Also Read | 'You give me plot, I'll give you job': BJP minister mocks Lalu Prasad Yadav on land-for-jobs scam)
“Searches resulted in detection of proceeds of crime amounting to ₹600 crore approximately at this point of time which is in the form of immovable properties of ₹350 crore and transactions of ₹250 crore routed through various benamidaars (front persons for benami properties),” ED said in a statement.
Tejashwi had earlier said the BJP will be left embarrassed if he made public the "panchnama" (seizure list) signed after the raids.
"The BJP government (at the Centre) spreading rumours again, quoting sources. It should have asked its spin doctors to first settle the account on the previous operations, before coming up with the new tale of ₹600 crore," Yadav said.
