Railway hotel tender case: ED to interrogate Rabri Devi today

Patna (Bihar) : A special team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will interrogate former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in Patna in connection with the IRCTC hotel scam, today.

Rabri's son Tejashwi was interrogated by ED for eight and half hours on October 10. He was questioned about money laundering in the railway hotel allotment case as the agency was unsatisfied with the earlier probe.

The investigative agency had, in July, registered a corruption case against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, Vijay Kochar and Vinay Kochar, both directors of Messer's Sujata Hotel Private Limited, Messer's Delight Marketing Private Limited, P.K. Goel, the then Managing Directors, IRCTC and others under Section 120B read with Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)d Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 in connection with the case.

The FIR, lodged by the CBI against the RJD chief, stated there were irregularities in awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of the BNR hotels in Ranchi and Puri when he was the railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The investigating agency had alleged the tender process was rigged, manipulated and the conditions were tweaked by the then railway minister to help a private hotel company.