The possession of huge benami properties is not the only worry that former Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav faces but even his membership of the Assembly has come under threat following a report of the Income Tax department that inspite of being the Deputy CM, he was holding an office of profit. Tejashwi, now the leader of Opposition, is a first time MlA from Raghopur.
The I-T, which is probing into the named and benami properties of Tejashwi, his mother and former CM Rabri Devi, elder brother and former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav, sister Misa Bharti, MP, and other close relatives has submitted a report following seizure of one benami property in Delhi. The report prepared by the Enforcement Directorate pointed out that Tejashwi continued to function as director of AB Export Private limited even after holding the post of Deputy CM.
JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said, “It is up to the Election Commission and the court to see if a Minister can hold office of profit. It is a sheer political corruption.”
He, however, said the party would not move for the termination of Tejashwi’s membership but anybody in his individual capacity was free to do so.
The 80-page report of the ED has also pointed out various irregularities in getting big contracts of railways by several real estate firms and number of shell companies. These irregularities were detected for a period during 2004-09 when lalu Prasad was Railway Minister.
Tejashwi had 98 per cent of the shares in AB Export but he had resigned from the directorship of the company, he was holding since January 10, 2011, on November 9, 2015 before taking oath as Deputy CM. But the agency detected that despite resigning from the post of director of the company and holding the office of Deputy CM he had been issuing cheques in his capacity as director.
Some cheques were found during raid at the houses of RJD MP Prem Gupta’s close aide Vijaypal Tripathi. These cheques were issued on February 9, 2016 to Olive Overseas limited, Nakshtra Business limited and Yash Jewel limited. The report said that even after resigning as director of the AB Exports Tejashwi continued working as director which came under the purview of holding office of profit.
Regarding the AB Exports, Tejashwi gave wrong answers during his interrogation by the I-T on august 29, 2017. To a query he said that all accounts of the company were kept in registered office in Delhi. But during the raid on its registered office at D-1088 New Friends Colony the accounts records were found missing. He also did not give any reply to the question that how Amit Katyal was associated with the company. The Corporate Affairs Ministry records showed that Tejashwi was authorised by the company to sign the cheques.
The property in the name of AB Exports in Delhi had been purchased for Rs 5 crore but the payment had been made by five different shell companies, all based in Mumbai but none of them could provide a satisfactory reply as to what was the source of money. The AB Exports was found that it was not involved in any business activities and the only assets it held was the property in New Friends Colony.