Former Bihar Chief Minister and wife of RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav Rabri Devi has reached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to appear before the sleuths at their Patna office on Saturday for questioning in the alleged land for railways hotel scam case.
Rabri, who has skipped multiple summons to appear before the ED officials in New Delhi, had challenged the investigating agencies to come to Patna, if they wanted to question her. She had said she would not appear before them in Delhi, however many notices they sent, and they would have to come to Patna for interrogating her.
She had alleged that the Centre was using the government machinery to “implicate her family.”
The ED had sent the last summon to Rabri on November 24. Sources said Rabri will be quizzed by a two member team from Delhi, assisted by local ED officials. This will be Rabri’s first interrogation by the ED and the officials are likely to record her statement. She was recently quizzed by the Income-Tax officials over other Benami property allegations.
Rabri is a co-accused in the scam, which pertains to allocation of maintenance of railways hotel in Ranchi and Puri in exchange of gratification during Lalu’s tenure as the Union railways minister in 2004. Lalu, his son and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, former Union minister Premchand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, are also accused in the case. The ED had registered a case against them under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in July this year.
The ED has already questioned Tejashwi in this case.
