CBI questions Tejashwi Yadav for four hours, conducts search at Rabri's residence

Lalu Prasad Yadav and several of his family members have been under CBI and ED's scrutiny in the IRCTC hotel scam case.

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Patna: The Central Burea of Investigations questioned Lalu Prasad Yadav's son - Tejaswhi - for four hours on Tuesday in connection with the railway hotel tender case. The RJD supremo and have been in the line of fire since news of the scam first broke.

During his tenure as the railway minister in 2006, Lalu allegedly awarded the maintenance contract for two IRCTC hotels – BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri – to a private firm Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar. While Lalu himself is in jail after being convicted in the fodder scam, son Tejashwi and wife Rabri continue to be in the line of CBI's suspicion. While Tejaswhi had already been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, he was interrogated for four hours by CBI on Tuesday. Rabri Devi too was questioned and searches were conducted at her residence.

CBI claims Lalu received a bribe in the form of three acres of the prime plot of land through a benami company Delight. His family members too are suspected to have been involved.

On July 7, 2017, the CBI had filed a FIR against Lalu. On the same day, the agency also raided 12 locations linked to Lalu and his family members in Patna, New Delhi, Ranchi, and Gurgaon.

The CBI has registered the case against Lalu Yadav, wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, and Sarla Gupta, the wife of former union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

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 Managing Director P K Goel.

The land scam and corruption charges led to a rift between the grand alliance of Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] and RJD, with Tejashwi Yadav losing his position as the Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister and JDU forming a new coalition with BJP.

(With PTI inputs)