IRCTC-Lalu case: Enforcement Directorate attaches land in Patna

The ED on Friday said it had attached a three-acre plot worth Rs 45 crore in the Bihar capital in connection with its money-laundering probe in the IRCTC hotel allotment scam case involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family.

Agency sources said the land is allegedly in the name of the family members of Lalu Prasad and a mall was supposed to be constructed there. The market value of the plot is Rs 45 crore, they said. The property has been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The central probe had last week questioned Lalu Prasad’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in the case in Patna.

It had earlier questioned their son Tejashwi Yadav, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar, twice in this case. In July, the agency had registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his family members and others under the provisions of the PMLA.

Just before this, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a criminal first information report and conducted multiple searches on the properties of Lalu Prasad and others.

The CBI FIR alleged that Lalu Prasad, during his tenure as the railway minister in UPA-I, handed over the maintenance of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels to a company in 2004 after receiving a bribe in the form of a prime land in Patna through a ‘benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister. The ED registered the criminal case against his family members and others under the PMLA, based on this CBI FIR.

The CBI has already recorded the statements of Tejashwi and Lalu Prasad in the 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 PK Goel.

The CBI FIR was registered on July 5 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”.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC)