TEJASHWI APPEARS BEFORE ED IN IRCTC SCAM CASE

Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, son of RJD leader Lalu Prasad, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in connection with a money laundering probe in the railway hotels allotment corruption case, official sources said.

They said the statement of the former Bihar deputy chief minister was recorded by the investigating officer of the case after he arrived at the ED office, slightly after 11am. This is the second time he is being questioned by the central probe agency in this case. He was last questioned by the agency on October 10 and was grilled for over nine hours.

Since then, Tejashwi has skipped four appearances and has appeared today as part of a fresh summon, they said.

The agency had registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his family members and others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sometime back.

Tejashwi’s mother and former Bihar chief minister Rabri has skipped the ED summons at least six times till now.

In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered an FIR and conducted multiple searches on the properties of Lalu Prasad, who is also a former Bihar chief minister, and others.

The CBI FIR has alleged that Lalu Prasad during his tenure as the railway minister handed over the maintenance of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels to a company in 2004 after receiving a bribe in the form of a prime land in Patna through a ‘benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister.

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