Lalu hits out at Sushil Modi, faces fresh salvo

Facing a fussilade of charges against him and his family members by Sushil Kumar Modi, RJD president Lalu Prasad today hit out at the BJP leader, saying his party would now "fire from Bofors tank daily."
Soon after the RJD chief vowed to expose the "misdeeds" of the senior BJP leader, Sushil Modi launched a fresh salvo against Prasad accusing him of extracting a "heavy price" from his colleague Premchand Gupta for making him the Rajya Sabha MP and minister in the UPA I government.
"We will fire from Bofors tank daily at Sushil Modi to expose his misdeeds," Prasad told reporters launching a counter-offensive against Sushil Modi.

Hitting out at the BJP leader, Prasad said Sushil Modi had helped his brother R K Modi in money laundering and other illegal business when he was the deputy chief minister in the Nitish Kumar-headed NDA government in the state.
He pooh-poohed Sushil Modi's defence that he had no links with his brother's business and said, "This is the real game.. Put somebody's face in front and pull the strings from behind."
On Sushil Modi's charges of corruption against him and his family, Prasad rubbished them, insisting that everything is in public domain.

To sharpen the attack on Sushil Modi, senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh and state party president Ramchandra Purbe addressed a press conference and echoed Prasad.

Soon after, Sushil Modi as if, in reply to Lalu's onslaught, fired yet another salvo in a press release alleging that like Raghunath Jha and Kanti Singh, Premchand Gupta had to pay a "heavy price" for becoming the RJD Rajya Sabha MP and minister.
"He (Gupta) had to pay this price by handing over his land worth crores of rupees and also family company," Sushil Modi alleged.
"Why did Gupta hand to Lalu Prasad's family his land on which Bihar's largest shopping mall is coming up near Saguna More here on 7 lakh square feet?
"Lalu Prasad should tell what is so special in a Haryana native Premchand Gupta that he sent him to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar five times and made him a minister at the Centre (during UPA I)? Didn't he (Gupta) pay him by handing over his land and the company?" Sushil Modi asked.

Modi alleged that Premchand Gupta had acquired Delight Company and two acres of land from one Harsh Kocchar for helping him (Kocchar) get two hotels in Ranchi and Puri when Prasad was the railway minister.
He further alleged both the firm and the was transferred by him ten years later to Rabri Devi and her minister sons Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav.
After a series of exposes of alleged "benami" properties of Lalu Prasad's family, Sushil Modi had in the past two days come out with the purported deed papers to allege that the RJD chief extracted land and building from Raghunath Jha and Kanti Singh in lieu of making them central ministers during UPA I. Today he came out with similar allegation regarding Premchand Gupta.