Tejashwi Yadav, son of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, was on Friday grilled by the Central Bureau of Investigation for nearly seven hours in connection with alleged corruption in the award of contract to maintain two IRCTC hotels in 2006 when his father was the railway minister.
The 27-year-old former deputy chief minister of Bihar appeared before the agency after evading three notices for questioning in connection with the case, CBI sources said.
They said Tejashwi arrived at the CBI headquarters at 11 am and his questioning ended around 6 pm.
The agency had quizzed Prasad for seven hours on Thursday.
He had alleged the government was pursuing political vendetta against him and his family.
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 FIR alleged the RJD chief abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of “high value premium land” through the benami firm Delight Marketing Company.
As a quid pro quo, he “dishonestly and fraudulently” awarded them the contract for the two hotels.
After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing also changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014, according to the FIR.
The sources said officials asked Yadav some crucial questions about the change of ownership of Delight Marketing and the purchase of land.
The agency will analyse his answers and may call him again for questioning, they said.
Image: Former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav arrives at the CBI headquarters for questioning in connection with an alleged case of corruption in awarding a maintenance contract for two IRCTC hotels to a private firm, in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Photo
