Circular Road: The CBI on Tuesday quizzed former chief minister Rabri Devi in the land-for-railways hotel case at her official residence, 10 Circular Road.
"A team of seven CBI men came around at 11 am and questioned her for four hours," said a source. "Rabri Devi was all alone when she was being questioned and not even Tejashwi Yadav was allowed to be in the room."
Initially, there was outrage over a CBI "raid". However, the agency clarified that it was not conducting any raid but seeking clarification from Rabri Devi on her role in the alleged scam that occurred when her husband, Lalu Prasad, was railway minister.
There were also reports about the CBI team from Delhi questioning Rabri and Lalu's younger son, Tejashwi. However, that could not be independently confirmed.
The CBI had earlier quizzed both Lalu and Tejashwi in Delhi. It had also summoned Rabri Devi, but she refused to go to Delhi and expressed her willingness to be questioned at home.
The CBI grilling on Tuesday triggered protests from the RJD, which accused the CBI of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar.
"The family is preparing for a wedding and the CBI has been used to humiliate the family. This was done on the day PM Modi is in Bihar. The people of Bihar are angry," said Shakti Singh Yadav, one of the 10 RJD MLAs who had gathered outside 10 Circular Road in a show of solidarity.
Even BJP leaders privately agreed that the timing of the questioning was bad.
Tejashwi being named in the land-for-hotels case FIR had triggered the fall of the Grand Alliance government.
The case relates to allegations that Lalu, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), in Ranchi and Puri to a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami (shell) company.
The FIR alleged that the RJD leader abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of "high value premium land" through a benami firm, Delight Marketing Company. As quid pro quo, Lalu "dishonestly and fraudulently" awarded the contract to them for the two hotels, the FIR alleged.
After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing Company changed hands from Sarla Gupta to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014. By then, Lalu had resigned as railway minister.
The CBI registered the case against Lalu, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi, and Sarla Gupta, wife of former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta.
