In a setback to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached a three-acre plot in Patna in relation to the railway hotel scam. The land was allegedly transferred to Yadav's family as quid pro quo in 2005, when the RJD chief was railways minister and exchanged favours to award the contract for the upkeep of IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar.
The development comes days after the agency grilled Lalu's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi.
The three-acre land near Saguna Mor was registered in 2005 under the name of Delight Marketing at the book value of Rs 1.9 crore, but is presently valued at Rs 44.60 crore.
The land belongs to LARA Projects, in which Rabri Devi and sons Tejashwi and Tej, former state deputy CM and health minister respectively, are directors. A mall, in association with a close Lalu associate MLA Syed Abu Dojana, was being constructed on the property, but was halted inMay after the CBI registered a case into the matter.
On September 12, the Income Tax (I-T) department issued an attachment order of over a dozen properties under the railways tender case in Patna and Delhi, including the land of the mall at Saguna More. Earlier, the ED had registered Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on July 27 and is broadly based on the FIR lodged by CBI on July 5.
The FIR states that between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched wherein BNR hotels were first transferred to the IRCTC and later, for their operations, maintenance and upkeep, given on lease to Sujata Hotels. It is alleged that "deal was a quid pro quo".
"The tender process was rigged to help Sujata Hotels. In return, three acres of land in Patna's Saguna More area was given to Delight Marketing, in which Sarla Gupta was a director as a front benami holder on behalf of Lalu. For this, the tender process was manipulated and managed by PK Goel, the then MD of IRCTC," a senior CBI officer said.
