CBI raids Lalu, family after filing new corruption case
RISING PRESSURE Bihar deputy CM, Lalu’s wife named
The CBI conducted raids across four cities on Friday in connection with a fresh corruption case filed against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and others.
The case, for which Lalu Yadav and his wife and son, who is Bihar deputy chief minister, have been booked, dates back to when he was Union railway minister in the UPA government.
A company that won the contract to run railway hotels transferred a parcel of prime land in Patna to a close confidant of Lalu Prasad the same day the railway ministry under him began the leasing of hotels to private firms, the Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged.
HT reviewed the CBI’s internal files that said on August 25, 2005, the Railway Board allowed private companies to run railway hotels, including two in Ranchi and Puri.
The same day Sujata Hotels, which eventually won the contract for the BNR hotels in Puri and Ranchi, sold two acres of land cheaply to Delight Marketing Company controlled by Sarala Gupta, the wife of former Union minister of corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta who is a member of Lalu’s RJD and a close confidant of his, it said.
The CBI said the value of the land was no less than at Rs 90 crore at prevailing market price.
A CBI source, citing a noting on a file by the then chairman railway board, said that Lalu directly monitored the contract procedure and even tweaked eligibility criteria that allowed Sujata Hotels to bid for the two hotels.
Officials Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office told Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar late on Thursday that federal agents were about to carry out the raids.
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