"They said they recovered a treasure from my house, they got nothing," he said.
Three days after raids on his and his family members' houses in multiple states in connection with the land-for-jobs case, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav today again rubbished the allegations, and taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. In a dig at the Prime Minister's 'entire political science' degree, and Mr Shah's 'understand the chronology' remark, Tejashwi Yadav said they (the Yadav family) are real socialists, not "fake entire political science people", and offered a chronology of events leading to the raids. He also questioned what happened to sensational, headline-making claims of recovering thousands of crores in money and properties during earlier raids.
"It takes courage to fight their lies, rumours, and political vendetta. We have the heart, the political space, integrity, and ideas. I said it the day we formed the government, that such attempts will be constant," he said, claiming that he has repeatedly said they expected "vengeful" action from the Centre through its probe agencies in response to ousting the BJP from power in Bihar.
Referring to the Enforcement Directorate's claim that they detected proceeds of crimes worth over Rs 600 crore in the recent raids, Mr Yadav demanded they first furnish details of the Rs 8,000 crore money laundering racket they claimed to have unearthed in 2017 raids, which they had said was linked to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav's family.
"They did it in the same style in 2017. What happened to Rs 8,000 crore? It's nothing. They said they recovered a treasure from my house, they got nothing. I am challenging them, they got nothing from me. They should release the seizure list, or I will do it," he said.
Taking a jibe at Amit Shah, he said, "Understand the chronology, like Amit Shah says -- when there was a trust vote for the new government, raids were conducted that day too, what happened to those raids? What did they find? Or let's go to 2017, they said Rs 8,000 crore, benami, properties. Income Tax, ED, CBI, all came after us. Today, it's 2023, almost six years, where did that property go? Whoever is directing them, maybe it's Amit Shah, there must be a scriptwriter, or dialogue writer, they should change them. The same thing, repeatedly, doesn't look good".
Calling it a "fake campaign", Tejashwi Yadav took a dig at the central investigating agencies.
"They are doing this fake campaign, like I am the real Adani. CBI and ED are confused, does my face look like Adani's? Overlooking a scam of Rs 80,000 crore, they keep raiding us every few days and find nothing. It's planted news. The ED issues a press release. They must have a panchnama (spot inspection report), I have it. I have tweeted that release the panchnama, or I will do it. They raided my sisters' houses, their in-laws, got all their extended families' jewellery, photographed it and released it, will they indulge in such low politics?" he further said.
Mr Yadav said "the people will answer", and they (Centre) can do whatever they want. "They are unable to digest that we ousted them from the (Bihar) government. They are desperate," he said.
BJP has accepted today that the BJP and RSS don't have the guts to fight Tejashwi Yadav, he added.
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