In a major blow to RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday conducted raids at as many as 12 locations all over the country, including Ranchi in a case related to alleged irregularities in tenders allotted to a private company Sujata Hotels for development, maintenance and operation of BNR Hotels at Ranchi and Puri.
Prasad, who was here on Friday to appear before a Special CBI Court in connection with a fodder scam case, claimed that he was being targeted by the BJP Government. Sources revealed that the CBI sleuths, around 5-7 in number, raided the BNR Chanakya Hotel at around 6:30 in the morning and went straight to the Hotel in charge and checked the documents and left at around 12 in the noon. They also said to have taken some of the documents along with them.
“This is just to malign my image as the BJP Government has been targeting the political leaders in a similar way everywhere with an intention to wipe out the opposition by sending them to jail so that they could rule all over the country alone,” said Prasad. “Don’t utter a single world, if you say anything, CBI will be sent to your place or you could be booked in a money laundering case,” he added.
“After reaching Patna, I would like to know what they have found in my house….. I am not going to cow down before such raids as there is no illegality and I have done nothing wrong,” Prasad said.
Prasad further questioned whether the CBI found any exceptional document or file from his house and said that it was all being done for 2019 lok Sabha elections as they all know that lalu is a strong man, but was still moving forward on his own path.
“Around 20-25 CBI people came to search the residence of Rabri Devi while my family members did not had any idea about it that why the team had gone there,” said the RJD chief. He got to know about the raid at his house through TV channels as he had been directed by the court to appear on Friday, he added. .
“Everything was done in such a secret and confidential way that nobody had any clue in this regard and a case was also registered… which is a bit strange,” said lalu. “The most surprising thing was that some of the National TV channels even declared that lalu was being arrested, but all in vain,” Prasad said.
He claimed that when he got to know about the raid he told his people back home to cooperate with the CBI officials as it was not their fault, as they will act only as they would be asked to do by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to IRCTC, Prasad disclosed that it was formed in 1999 when he was neither Rail Minister not he was a Cabinet Minister. IRCTC started functioning in the year 2002 under a policy and the Railway handed it over Delhi, Howrah, Ranchi and Puri Yatri Niwas Hotels to it in the year 2003 when NDA was in the Government.
He became Minister for Railways in the year 2004, he said.
“Under this decision only, some of the hotels which were in bad condition were leased out for 15 years in the year 2006 through open tenders for developing them. license fees were charged to them against the lease. The allegation being made against me of taking land against the leases is totally baseless,” said Prasad.
lalu held the position of Union Railways Minister from 2004 to 2009 under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s UPA-1 regime. After winning 21 seats in the 2004 general elections, RJD formed alliance with Indian National Congress (INC) and was the second largest member of UPA 1.
The FIR was lodged by the CBI on July 5 against lalu, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who is currently the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar under Sections 420, 120B and Section 13 of IPC. Names of former Managing Director of IRCTC PK Goel, Sarla Gupta (wife of former Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta), Vijay and Vinay Kocchar (Directors of M/s Sujata Hotels Private limited, proprietors of Hotel Chanakya), lara Projects llP (erstwhile M/S lara Projects Pvt. limited, M/S Delight Marketing Private limited) have also been included in the FIR.