RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s son and Bihar Minister Tej Pratap Yadav has found himself in the midst of controversy even as the ghost of scam has returned to haunt the Yadav family once again.

RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s son and Bihar Minister Tej Pratap Yadav has found himself in the midst of controversy even as the ghost of scam has returned to haunt the Yadav family once again. It has been learned that training his gun at the state Environment and Forest Minister, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has demanded Tej Pratap’s sacking over his ‘involvement in soil purchase scam’. The scam thing is not new to the Lalu Prasad family. Notably, A special CBI court in Ranchi had convicted Prasad and 44 others in September, 2014 in the case relating to embezzlement of Rs 37.70 crore from Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95 meant for the purchase of cattle fodder for farmers in the state. The case is famously known as the fodder scam which eventually had affected Lalu Prasad’s active political career.

Here is what we know so far in the allegation against Tej Pratap Yadav

Sushil Kumar Modi charged the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s minister son Tej with giving contract of Rs 90 lakh for land filling work in Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park located in the state capital. Yadav’s department, under whose jurisdiction the Park falls, gave contract of Rs 90 lakh to a company without following the tender process for construction of a pathway and beautification work in the park, Modi alleged.

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Tej Pratap, however, had refuted the charge and also threatened to move court against former deputy chief minister ushil Kumar Modi.

Lalu Prasad rallied behind his son as he rejected the charges and expressed readiness for any probe in this regard. “The allegation is far from truth. Get it inquired by anybody,” he told mediapersons. “If my family is deriving any money from any such thing in the Patna Botanical garden it must have been recorded somewhere by authority there…get is checked to ascertain the facts,” he said. The RJD chief said his family has been rather providing cowdung to the Patna zoo free for past one-and-a-half years for its use.

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Mrityunjay Tiwari, RJD spokesperson, said Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had clarified that the contract was worth Rs 44 lakh and not Rs 90 lakh. Tiwari said it was awarded for “soil purchase” and that all norms had been “duly complied with”.

The “soil purchase” relates to earth excavated from a two-acre plot, along the busy Bailey Road in Danapur, owned by Delight Marketing Co Pvt Limited which contracted Meridian Construction (India) Limited, owned by RJD’s Sursand MLA Syed Abu Dojama, to build a shopping mall at the site.

According to records of the Registrar of Companies, Delight Marketing Co Pvt Limited, a Delhi-based company incorporated on June 10, 1981, had Tejashwi Prasad, Tej Pratap and Chanda Yadav as its directors since 2014. In August 2016, Ragini, their sister, was also inducted on the board.

RoC records show that Delight Marketing changed names twice recently — it became Lara Projects Private Limited on November 2, 2016 and then became a limited liability partnership firm, Lara Projects LLP, on February 14, 2017. According to RoC documents, Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap are shareholders in the partnership firm.

(With agency inputs)