Lalu and family booked for money laundering in IRCTC hotel tender case

The case relates to alleged manipulation in awarding contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways--IRCTC-- when the RJD chief was railway minister in the UPA govt

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday registered money laundering case against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members in connection with the IRCTC hotel tender case.

The case against Lalu and his family was registered a day after JD (U) parted ways with its coalition partner RJD. Nitish Kumar resigned as CM on Wednesday and joined hands with the BJP over corruption cases against Lalu's son, former Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and family members.

The case relates to alleged manipulation in awarding contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways--IRCTC-- when the RJD chief was railway minister in the UPA government.

Early this month, the CBI conducted raids across four cities-Patna, Ranchi, Gurgaon and Bhubaneswar- in connection with the case in which Lau's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi are among the accused.

It is alleged that Lalu Yadav as railway minister handed over the maintenance of two railway hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a benami company owned by Sarla Gupta.

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

CBI stated that the criminal conspiracy spanned 2004-14 during which the tender process was "rigged" in favour of Sujata Hotels.

CBI further said that in return, the owners of Sujata Hotel gave three acres of land in western Patna to Delight Marketing which is known to the family of Lalu Yadav at a very low cost. Subsequently, between 2010 to 2014, this land was further transferred to another company Lara Projects owned by family members of Lalu Yadav.

Lalu criticised the CBI's action of naming his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, and son Tejashwi, as accused in the case. He said when the alleged irregularities took place, Rabri was not a public servant and Tejashwi was a minor.

(With agency inputs)