CBI raids Lalu, his family: Time for Nitish to speak up, says BJP's Giriraj Singh

Bihar: Rashtriya Janta Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav once again came under CBI scanner; as the investigative agency on Friday raided 12 locations linked to him. These locations were in Delhi, Ranchi, Patna and Gurugram. The raids are also linked to Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, his son Tejasvi Yadav, PC Gupta’s wife’s residence, Former Chairman of IRCTC and locations of 8 private companies. CBI has filed a case over Criminal Conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act, over allegations that a hefty amount of scamming has been done during giving away railway land and stations at lease during Lalu’s tenure as a Railways Minister.

ANI EXCLUSIVE: CBI FIR copy in Railway hotel tenders case, names Lalu Yadav, wife Rabri,son Tejaswi and others pic.twitter.com/hbLcGiKCuv

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CBI had probed the locations which need to be raided 24 hours ago; and starting 6am on Friday, CBI raided all the locations together simultaneously. The searches started at seven in the morning and were spread out at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurugram, Additional Director CBI Rakesh Asthana said at a press conference. "The case is of criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption," Asthana said. He said between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of Indian Railways located at Puri and Ranchi were first transferred to the IRCTC and later on for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to a private firm Sujata Hotel pvt ltd based in Patna. "Allegation is that during this process, tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party (Sujata Hotel). In return, three acre land in western Patna was given to Delight Marketing which is known to the family of Lalu Yadav at a very low cost and subsequently between the period 2010 to 2014, this land was further transferred to another company Lara Projects owned by family members of Lalu Yadav," he said. This transfer also took place at a very low price. Whereas the land was valued at 32 crore as per the circle rate, it was transferred to merely 65 lakh to Lara Projects, Asthana said. He said this case was registered on July 5 after carrying out a preliminary enquiry. CBI is likely to call Lalu Yadav and others related to the case for further grilling. The BNR Hotels are heritage hotels of the Railways which were taken over by the IRCTC from the public transporter earlier in the same year. RJD on the other hand has clearly stated the raids at a political vendetta laid down by Bharatiya Janta Party. Speaking to ABP News, RJD leader Manoj Jha said, “It is clearly a case of political vendetta by BJP.” He further said that “BJP has a habit of getting after anyone who dares to raise a voice against them”. The leader further asserted that “the party would keep fighting a legal fight”. Senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh said ,"law is taking its own course, now Nitish ji cannot remain a mute spectator.He will have to speak out and state his stand clearly." (With additional information from PTI)