Patna: A special team of Enforcement Directorate will interrogate Bihar former Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi in connection with money laundering probe in the railway hotels allotment corruption case.
Rabri Devi will appear before the ED officials in Patna on Saturday.
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 Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav Tejashwi was grilled by the ED for over nine hours in connection with 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’.
Bureau Report
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