Tejashwi Yadav, Rabri Devi summoned by Enforcement Directorate

New Delhi: The c (ED) has summoned former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi in connection with its money laundering probe pertaining to the alleged irregularities committed in awarding tenders for development, maintenance and operation of Railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a private firm when RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister in 2006.

Sources said Mr Tejashwi has been asked to be present before the investigating officer of the case on October 10. Mr Lalu’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri have been summoned a day after on October 11.

She was earlier summoned twice by the ED in this case but she is understood to have sought more time to appear.

The case dates back to the time when Mr Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. The central probe agency is expected to record their statements under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act under which it had registered an FIR against members of Lalu Prasad family and others sometime back. The ED had earlier questioned a few people in this case including the wife of former UPA minister P.C.Gupta. The agency had taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiating its own criminal complaint.

In July, the CBI had registered an FIR and conducted multiple searches at the premises of Lalu Prasad and others. The ED will investigate the alleged “proceeds of crime” generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, sources said. 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 alleges that Lalu Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC 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 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’.