BackLalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi skips scheduled appearance before ED
Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad, skips his scheduled appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering probe in the railway hotels allotment case
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New Delhi: Tejashwi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, on Tuesday skipped his scheduled appearance before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering probe in the railway hotels allotment case, official sources said.
It was not immediately clear if the former deputy chief minister of Bihar furnished any reason for his absence to the central probe agency as also the next course of action of the ED.
Tejashwi has been once grilled by the agency for over nine hours in connection with the case but since then he has skipped the summons thrice. His mother and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi too has skipped the ED summonses five times. She has now been summoned to appear on 7 November before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case.
The agency had registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his family members and others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) sometime back.
In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR and conducted multiple searches on the properties of Lalu Prasad, who is also a former Bihar chief minister, and others.
The CBI FIR has alleged that Lalu Prasad, during his tenure as the railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels to a company in 2004 after receiving a bribe in the form of a prime plot of land in Patna through a ‘benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta, the wife of Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister.
The ED had registered a criminal case against his family members and others under the PMLA, based on the CBI FIR. The CBI also recently recorded the statements of Tejashwi and Lalu Prasad in this case.
The ED is investigating the alleged “proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, according to the officials.
Others named in the CBI FIR include 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.
The CBI FIR was registered on 5 July in connection with favours 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’.
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