CBI Raids Lalu Prasad’s Home Over IRCTC Hotel Scam Allegations, Tejashwi Yadav Also Questioned

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday raided the house of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in connection with the IRCTC hotel scam.

According to sources, Lalu’s son and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, is also being interrogated by the agency in relation to the case.

Earlier, CBI questioned former Bihar chief minister and Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi in Patna in connection with the alleged scam which reportedly occurred during Lalu’s tenure as the railway minister, officials told IANS.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu as railway minister handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a three-acre plot in Patna through a benami company.

The FIR alleged that the RJD leader abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of "high value premium land" through the benami firm, Delight Marketing Company.

As a quid pro quo, he "dishonestly and fraudulently" awarded the contract to them for the two hotels, the FIR had alleged.

After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing Company also changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014. By this time, Lalu Prasad had resigned as railway minister.

The CBI registered the case against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, who was the deputy chief minister of Bihar until a few months ago, and Sarla Gupta, the wife of former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel, Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and then IRCTC managing director P K Goel, it alleged.

(With IANS inputs)