Bharat Petroleum issues show cause notice to Tej Pratap over illegally acquired petrol pump

State-owned energy behemoth Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. has issued a show cause notice to Bihar health minister Tej Pratap Yadav for allegedly acquiring a petrol pump illegally in Patna. [caption id=“attachment_3367408” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bihar health minister Tej Pratap. Image courtesy News 18[/caption] Son of former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad, the show cause was issued and delivered by hand to Tej Pratap on Tuesday. The show cause notice comes at a time when the Lalu Prasad clan is under the scanner for allegedly amassing property through unfair means. On 16 May , the I-T department raided 22 places in and around Delhi in connection with the alleged benami property deals involving Lalu Prasad and his children — Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, health minister Tej Pratap and Misa Bharti, who is a Rajya Sabha member. The show cause, which was issued following a complaint by an individual Chandrasekhar and others on 28 April this year, alleged that the Bihar health minister does not own the plot on which the fuel station is located. “… it was alleged that in your application that you had falsely declared that you have land for retail outlet, whereas the real owner of the said land was M/s A K Infosystems who had never given the lease to you. It is further stated in the complaint that on the date of submission of the said application for retail outlet i.e. on 12.01.2012, you were neither the shareholder nor the director of the said M/s A K Infosystems. It was also stated in the said complaint that M/s A K Infosystems never entered into any lease with you,” the show cause notice said. The petrol pump is located on the Anishabad Bypass Road in Patna and is named Lara Automobiles. The petrol pump was commissioned on 27 February this year. The company said that with Tej Pratap now rendering his duties as a minister in the state government it also violates Clause 7 of the ‘Brochure for selection of petrol/diesel retail outlet dealers’.

Making it compulsory for the dealer to supervise the fuel station in person, the Clause 7 said, “7. Personal Supervision by Dealer: An applicant selected for the RO Dealership shall be paying attention toward day to day working of the dealership by personally managing the affairs of the dealership. He/She will not be eligible for taking up any other employment. If the selected person is already employed he/she will have to resign from the employment prior to appointment as dealer.” The show cause notice also made it clear that strict actions would be taken if the allegations made against the Bihar health minister are found to be true. “… we observed that you are at present discharging the duty of Minister for Health, Minor Water Resources, Environment and Forest of the state of Bihar which may suggest that you are not in a position to carry out the obligations contained in the agreement personally. Since you are currently discharging the functions of Minister for Health, Minor Water Resources, Environment and Forest of the state of Bihar, the same may amount to violation of the clause 10 (t) and selected guidelines…. the allegations in the complaint and the observations above are serious in nature and if found to be true may lead to cancellation or termination of the DPSL agreement under reference,” the notice said. The Dispensing Pump and Selling License (DPSL) agreement which was effective from the date of commission of the facility clearly states in Clause 10 (t) that the licensee is in agreement with the company “to carry out obligations contained in this agreement personally and not to take up or continue any other employment.” The show cause notice gave 15 days time to Tej Pratap to explain his position failing which the company warned of penalty including cancellation of the dealership. On 5 May, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had claimed that RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tej Pratap was illegally allotted a petrol pump in Bihar capital Patna. Modi had alleged that Tej Pratap was allotted a petrol pump after fake documents were furnished in connivance with an official of the oil company. “Tej Pratap did not have 43 dismil of land on New Bypass Road in 2011 when he had appeared for an interview before the petrol pump,” he said. However, A K Infosystem on 9 January, 2012 gave 136 dismil of land on lease at the same place for opening a petrol pump to Tej Pratap’s younger brother Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Modi alleged adding that as per the lease deed Tejashwi cannot “sub-let” the said land. The application for petrol pump was made by Tej Pratap but the land was allotted to Tejashwi, he said. “How can Tej Pratap be allotted a petrol pump when he had neither land nor the lease of the land in his name? The matter must be probed thoroughly. I will also request the Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to get the matter probed,” the senior BJP leader had said. “I have been for the past one month exposing Lalu Prasad and his family’s corrupt deals but neither the state government has initiated any probe or action into the matter nor Prasad denied allegations of corruption,” the former deputy chief minister said. Modi, the Opposition leader in the Legislative Council, had announced that the party will also hold “dharnas” across the state and demand probe into the allegations against Lalu Prasad and his family for allegedly acquiring hundreds of crores of benami properties. Reacting sharply to Modi’s allegation, the RJD described the allegation as “half-baked” information that would expose him (Modi) in the future. “A desperate Sushil Modiji is trying to invent illegality into matters which stand miles away. The land is on lease to Bharat Petroleum,” RJD’s national spokesman Manojh Jha had said. “He must realise that a little and half baked knowledge shall only expose him further as happened in case of his so-called soil scam allegation at zoo. And the referred pump is not even operational,” Jha had said. With inputs from PTI