In fresh trouble for RJD chief lalu Prasad, the CBI on Friday raided his establishments at 12 locations across five cities after having registered a case of corruption against him, his wife Rabri Devi and his son and Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. The raids were conducted in Delhi, Patna, Ranchi, Puri and Gurugram.
The CBI alleged that lalu as the then Railway Minister handed over maintenance of two Railway hotels, BNR Ranchi and Puri, to Patna-based Sujata Hotels after receiving three acres of prime land as bribe through a benami company in 2006. The CBI also questioned Rabri and Tejashwi, recorded their statements and seized some documents.
lalu has already been chargesheeted in the multi-crore fodder scam. The raids were conducted while lalu was in Ranchi appearing in a fodder scam-related case.
Additional Director CBI, Rakesh Asthana, who had supervised the fodder scam probe, said the CBI has registered a case under Section 120 B r/w 420 of IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla.
“Others accused in the FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, directors of Sujata Hotels and owner of Chanakya Hotel, Delight Marketing Company limited (DMCl), and several others unknown persons,” said Asthana, adding that the case was registered on July 5 after an preliminary enquiry. CBI also raided the premises of lalu’s chartered accountant in Bihar.
Asthana said that between 2004 and 2014, the two BNR hotels were first transferred to the IRCTC and later their operations, maintenance and upkeep, was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Pvt ltd.
A copy of the FIR, accessed by The Pioneer, alleged that lalu abused his official position for extending undue favour to Kochhars and in pursuance thereof, a high value premium land was acquired by him through their benami company DMCl, at much lower than the market price.
It is alleged that Vinay on February 25, 2005 sold commercial property in the form of three acres of land in western Patna through 10 sale-deeds for Rs 1.47 crore to DMCl in which Sarla was a director as a front benami holder on behalf of lalu, despite the circle rate of Rs 1.93 crore.
“later between 2010 to 2014 when the shares of DMCl were taken over by lalu’s family, the circle rate had increased substantially and in 2014 when the shares of DMCl were completely taken over by lalu’s family, the circle rate of the property was reportedly valued at Rs 32.5 crore and the market rate was about Rs 94 crore. Thus, the shares of the company having a net-worth of more than Rs 32.5 crore (as per the then circle rate of assets held by the company) was transferred by the family of Prem Chand Gupta to lalu’s family for approximately just Rs 64 lakh,” the FIR said.
The CBI learnt that the land was sold by Kochhars to DMCl and the payment was arranged “surreptitiously” in the form of investment of DMCl through Ahluwalia Contractors and its promoter Bikramjeet Singh Ahluwalia.
“On the day the sale deeds were executed by the Kochhars in favour of DMCl on February 25, 2005, the Railway Board informed IRCTC of its decision to transfer BNR hotels on “as is, where is basis”, the FIR alleged.
The CBI said the BNR hotels were transferred to Sujata Hotels through a rigged and manipulated tender process managed by PK Goel, then MD, IRCTC.
The Railway sought bids for developing, operating and maintaining Rail Ratna Hotels on September 16, 2006. To “restrict” competition for BNR hotels, the IRCTC officials issued a corrigendum making a reference about commencement of sale for bid documents for BNR hotels, it alleged.
The CBI said lalu was aware of the whole process and was keeping track of it. While over 15 bid documents were received for both the hotels, IRCTC has no records of bidders other than Sujata Hotels. It is also alleged that the bid of another hotel was deliberately given low marks under technical evaluation.
“As a result, Sujata Hotel remained the only bidder in financial evaluation and qualified,” it alleged. After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of DMCl also changed hands from Sarla to Rabri and Tejashwi between 2010 and 2014. By this time lalu had demitted the office of Railway Minister.