Tejashwi Yadav to appear before ED in corruption case on November 13

The case pertains to allegations that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.

The company was owned by Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister. The CBI had in July registered an FIR and conducted multiple searches on the properties of Lalu Prasad and others. On the basis of CBI FIR, the ED had registered a criminal case against his family members and others under the PMLA.

The CBI had also recently recorded the statements of Tejashwi and Lalu Prasad in this case. According to officials, the ED is investigating the alleged “proceeds of crime” generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies.

Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel are the other people named in the CBI FIR. In connection with favors allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri, and receiving premium land as ‘quid pro quo’, the CBI FIR was registered against Lalu and family on July 5.

The probe agency had once grilled Tejashwi for over 9 hours in connection with the case but he later skipped four summonses to appear again. It is to be noted that Tejashwi’s mother and former Bihar chief minister Rabri has already been asked by the agency to appear before it on November 7. She too has skipped the ED summonses at least five times.

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