Land-for-hotel scam: Enforcement Directorate grills Rabri Devi

Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi reaches ED's office in Patna for questioning in a money laundering case.

PTI photo

PATNA: Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi on Saturday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the state capital in connection with a railway hotels allotment corruption case.

A special team of the agency from Delhi is expected to question her and record her statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Her appearance before the central probe agency today comes after she skipped similar summonses at least six times.

Rabri had previously appeared before the ED officials on November 7, for questioning in the case.

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.

Rabri's son and former Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav has been grilled by the ED twice in the case, but he later skipped four summonses to appear again.

In July, the 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 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.

The ED is investigating the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, according to officials.

Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

The CBI FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as 'quid pro quo'.