Raid on Lalu in Bhubaneswar and Puri

Bhubaneswar, July 7: CBI teams swooped down on premises here as well as Puri, among 10 other places in Delhi, Patna, Ranchi and Gurugram in simultaneous raids Friday in connection with the corruption case involving former Union Railway minister Lalu Prasad and his family. The raids from morning and lasting several hours followed registration of cases against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, among others in what amounts to a suspected conspiracy and large-scale corruption in land and property transactions, some of which were linked directly to the Railway assets in Puri and elsewhere.
As per the case, there were large-scale irregularities in awarding the tender for maintenance and operation of one each railway hotel in Ranchi and Puri in 2006. It is alleged that Lalu Yadav as railway minister handed over the maintenance and operation of BNR Hotels — one each at Ranchi and Puri — to Patna-based Sujata Hotels Ltd after receiving a bribe in the form of a three-acre prime land in Patna in 2006, by a paltry recorded payment of around Rs 1 crore. The BNR Hotels are heritage hotels of the Indian Railways which were taken over by the IRCTC from the public transporter in 2006.
As per the CBI case, Lalu Prasad had taken a special interest in the deal as railway minister leading to the rigging of the tender process in favour of Sujata Hotel.
The central agency has registered a case under section 120 B r/w 420 of IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988.
Others named in the FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and then IRCTC managing director P K Goel. PNN/Agencies