Lalu controversy: there is more than what meets the eyes

Patna: Lalu Prasad Yadav who has been identifying himself with the downtrodden and poor in Bihar and created image of a "man next door" is actually "stinking rich " and a member of Rs 500-crore-club.

Former state chief minister and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal which is a partner in the government in the state, he heads a family which is building the largest mall in partnership with a legislative assembly member of his party.

Spread over five lakh square feet, the mall is being built near the state capital at a cost of over Rs 500 crores.

The land on which the mall is being constructed belongs to his family and was offered cheaply by another company owned by another member of this "poor man's party".

Lalu has himself admitted all this but finds nothing wrong with amassing wealth. " Every man wants his son to do business. You expect that they should wear torn clothes. What is wrong if my family members owned the company? he asked a newsmen when he was asked a question in this regard on Friday ( yesterday).

Delight Marketing Private Limited set up in 1981 was the company which had purchased the land as early as 2005. Shares worth Rs 4.2 lakhs of the company were purchased by the Lalu's family. Little was heard about the company for ten years.

In 2014, a year before, the assembly elections in the state it did something of which no one had an inkling-- it transferred the land to Lalu's family. His two sons and a daughter were appointed directors. The land was purchased for Rs 90 lakhs although it was valued at Rs 100 crores by the market men then.

After the elections in 2015 when his party emerged as the largest single party, a new company was floated, Lara Properties Private Limited. It is not yet known whether it was renamed as Lara Properties LLP or it was a new company but with his family members as directors a company with this name was registered in February this year.

This company is building the sprawling mall in partnership with a company owned by a party MLA .

What is more, in the affidavits filed to the Election Commission, none of Lalu's two sons has mentioned about the directorship of any company. Nor any one of them has said anything about the income from these companies.

Clearly, there is more to it than what meets the eyes.