CBI books Lalu family over hotel tender irregularities
July 07, 2017
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday carried out searches at 12 locations after registering a corruption case against former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members including his son Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav.
The searches started at 7 am and were spread out at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurugram, Additional Director CBI Rakesh Asthana said at a press conference.
“The case is of criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under Indian Penal Code and corruption,” Asthana said.
He said between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of Indian Railways located at Puri and Ranchi were first transferred to the IRCTC and later on for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to a private firm Sujata Hotel pvt ltd based in Patna.
“Allegation is that during this process, tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party (Sujata Hotel). In return, three acre land in western Patna was given to Delight Marketing which is known to the family of Lalu Yadav at a very low cost and subsequently between the period 2010 to 2014, this land was further transferred to another company Lara Projects owned by family members of Lalu Yadav,” he said.
This transfer also took place at a very low price. Whereas the land was valued at 32 crore as per the circle rate, it was transferred to merely 65 lakh to Lara Projects, Asthana said.
He said this case was registered on July 5 after carrying out a preliminary enquiry.
The CBI has registered the case against 69-year-old Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, former union minister.
Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel, Delight marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC Managing Director P K Goel.(Agencies)
