India
The development comes weeks after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered an FIR earlier on July 7 against them.
Updated : Jul 28, 2017, 06:50 AM IST
Hours after Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister in alliance with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), the Enforcement Directorate reported that they have registered a money laundering case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members in connection with allotment of railway hotels to a company.
The agency has registered a money-laundering case under various sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav, and five others, including a former IRCTC managing director. The case is based on alleged corruption linked to a grant of tenders for the maintenance of Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) hotels to Sujata Hotels.
Officials said the central probe agency registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint. ED director Karnal Singh confirmed about the development. Interestingly, the case was registered on Tuesday, a day before Nitish Kumar broke alliance with Lalu's party and resigned from the post of chief minister.
The development comes weeks after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered an FIR earlier on July 7 against them. The agency also had carried out raids at 12 places in Delhi, Ranchi, Patna, Puri and Gurugram, including residence of Lalu.
The agency alleged that Lalu as Railway Minister handed over maintenance of two Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) hotels of Indian Railways at Ranchi and Puri, to a private form Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd , owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar by rigging tenders after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land of three acres through a benami company in 2006.
The agency has registered a case under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act against Lalu, his wife Rabri, his son Tejashwi, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Prem Gupta's wife Salra Gupta.
Others named as accused in the FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Panchari Hotel, Delight marketing company, now known as LARA Projects, and several others unknown persons.
As per FIR, it is that alleged that Lalu, the then railway minister, entered into criminal conspiracy with owners of Sujata hotels, Sarla Gupta and IRCTC officials for "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others".
Between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched wherein BNR hotels of Indian Railways at Puri and Ranchi were first transferred to the IRCTC and later on for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd .
The agency alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help Sujata Hotel. In return, three acre land in Patna's Saguna More was given to Delight Marketing, in which Sarla Gupta was a director as a front benami holder on behalf of Lalu. .
The circle rate of the property in 2014 was Rs 32.5 crore whereas the market rate was Rs 94 crore of the three acre land. Over there, Bihar's biggest mall is being constructed by Meridian Construction India Limited. The construction of the Mall on a part of the said land, is being done in a 55:45 partnership with Meridian owned by RJD MLA Syed Abu Dojana.