PATNA: Dismissing the Bihar's ruling NDA's claim of having clinching evidence against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in the land-for-jobs scam as "nothing but a bundle of lies and fraud", the opposition RJD threatened to file defamation suit against the leaders of the alliance.

"The NDA's charge that the RJD chief acquired immovable property worth over Rs 1000 million through dubious means since taking over as Railway Minister in 2004, is nothing but full of lies, forgery and fraud," state RJD Chief Abdul Bari Siddiqui, its national spokesman Shyam Rajak and Deputy Leader in Bihar assembly, Shakeel Ahmed Khan, told a joint press conference here.

"Both the immovable and movable assets earned by Lalu Prasad have been accounted for in the Income Tax returns," Siddiqui claimed and said the IT department must have sought clarifications from him (Lalu Prasad) if it was not satisfied with the returns.

The ruling alliance in Bihar charged Lalu with having bestowed political favors to at least three Union ministers, who gifted land and buildings to his family. A TV channel claimed it had evidence of the minister offering jobs in the Railways to people as quid-pro-quo for getting their land registered in the names of his family members.

Referring to more than 500 pages of land registration documents purportedly signed by the beneficiaries of railway jobs, which were released to the press by the JD(U) leaders, Siddiqui said "all these documents were forged and fabricated."

"The ruling alliance leaders are indulging in character assassination exercise," Siddiqui said. If the JD(U) leaders failed to apologize in public within a week for their sinister attempts "to defame Lalu," the RJD would file a defamation suit against them.

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