R.C.P. Singh announces his resignation from the primary membership of JDU, says he was being targeted by JDU leaders who wanted to become the CM of Bihar.
New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader and former Union minister Ramchandra Prasad Singh, or RCP as he is referred to, is likely to find himself under legal trouble after it emerged that he had allegedly accumulated at least 58 immovable assets in the form of residential and agricultural lands in just two blocks of one district of Bihar in the nine-year period from 2013-2022. These properties are in the name of his wife and two daughters. None of these properties, as per JDU party leaders, were declared by Singh in his election affidavit.
These details related to Singh, who till last month was the minister of state for steel in the Union cabinet, have come to light after the JDU state president, Umesh Singh Kushwaha, wrote a letter in a form of notice to Singh on 4 August, asking him to respond to these charges that were brought before the JDU by Nalanda-based party leaders. The JDU leadership, which includes Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and national President Lalan Singh, were apprised of these damaging details on 26 July by two Nalanda-based JDU leaders, including Rakesh Kumar, who is the block president of the party in Nalanda district.
The letter-cum-notice to Singh by Kushwaha would not have been sent unless express permission from Nitish Kumar was taken first. According to the letter sent by Umesh Kushwaha to Singh, that has been accessed by The Sunday Guardian, the former Union minister in the name of his family, that includes his wife and two daughters, bought 58 separate plots totalling 40 bigha or 10,88,800 square feet land in just two blocks of Nalanda, Asthawan and Islampur. Singh is a registered voter in Asthawan.
As per Singh’s affidavit that he filed before the Election Commission of India when he was made the JDU Rajya Sabha candidate in June 2016, he owns only one piece of land totalling 1.08 acre in which he has 50% share. The letter sent by Kushwaha, which contains the details of these 58 plots, mentions that Singh worked with Nitish Kumar for many years and he was made Union minister, general secretary of the party, national president and was sent to Rajya Sabha twice by the party in complete faith. It goes on to mention that Singh is aware that Nitish Kumar has zero tolerance when it comes to corruption and despite being in public life for so many decades, he has not accumulated any property nor a single charge of corruption has been levelled against him. The letter ends with directions to Singh to submit his response immediately. Singh as of today does not hold any post in the party.
The opposition RJD, which was on the back-foot following the recent arrest of Bhola Yadav, former OSD of party president Lalu Prasad Yadav, is likely to attack the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which has JDU and BJP, over these revelations. Singh, who is now estranged from Nitish Kumar, till very recently was considered to be among the closest advisors to the CM. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating multiple members of the Lalu Yadav family for their alleged involvement in the land-for-job scam, too, are likely to come under pressure from political parties to start a probe against R.C.P. Singh as he, too, now faces similar charges.
Singh, who has been trying to join the BJP after being denied the Rajya Sabha tenure by Nitish Kumar, as per party leaders, had even gone to Hyderabad to join the BJP’s National Executive last month where he was expected to be given the party membership, is unlikely to be touched by the party now, post these disclosures.
On Saturday night, R.C.P. Singh announced his resignation from the primary membership of JDU while addressing a press conference in Bihar Sharif. He said he was being targeted by JDU leaders who wanted to become the CM of Bihar while referring to Lalan Singh, national president of JDU and senior party leader Upendra Kushwaha.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Kushwaha said that the letter was sent by him. “I have sought details and clarifications from him (Singh),” he told The Sunday Guardian. JDU leader Sanjay Kumar Patel @ Rakesh Mukhia, who collected the information which he compiled a 38-page report that also has the revenue record of the properties that were allegedly bought by Singh, said that the properties owned by Singh were much more. “We are in the process of collecting more details. I can say with complete responsibility that he has bought land in other parts of Bihar and the total number of such property is more than 100,” Rakesh told The Sunday Guardian.
As per the documents that have been sent to Singh along with the letter by Kushwaha, 34 plots of lands were bought by Singh’s wife and daughters in Asthawan. The registry year of these 34 properties are: two in 2011, three in 2013, 5 in 2014, 6 in 2015, one in 2017, three in 2018, three in 2019, three in 2020, six in 2021 and two in 2022. Of the details of the 24 properties that he allegedly bought in Islampur block, the registry year of 12 properties has been mentioned in the letter. Of this, three were registered in 2013, four were registered in 2014, three in 2015 and two in 2106.
Many of these properties, as per the letter, are in the name of Singh’s two daughters. Ten of them are in the name of Lipi Singh, who is an IPS officer of 2016 batch, Bihar cadre. As per the asset declaration done by Lipi Singh, as required by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) rules, dated 1 January 2022, she owns five properties of which three she has inherited while two of them she has purchased.
In his response, R.C.P. Singh said that no wrong has been done by him while purchasing the properties in the name of her two daughters. He said that one of his daughters is an IPS officer and the other is a lawyer who have been filing income tax return since 2010. Singh said that his father too was in the government service who transferred all his properties to his grand daughter. The plots, he said, were bought in several pieces and some plots were bought by exchanging one plot with the other and not a single rupee was transferred from his bank accounts to purchase these properties.