New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a chargesheet against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi Yadav for alleged money laundering in the railways hotel allotment case. The chargesheet came on a day Jharkhand High Court refused to extend Lalu's provisional bail, that had been granted on medical grounds, in the fodder scam cases and asked him to turn himself in before August 30.
The 70-year-old Lalu is undergoing treatment for multiple ailments in Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute. On return to Ranchi, he is expected to be held in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.
The ED, in its chargesheet, said that Lalu, who was railway minister in the UPA 1 regime between 2004 and 2009, and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) officials had misused their position for granting sub-lease of the rights of two railway hotels - at Puri in Odisha and Ranchi in Jharkhand - to Sujata Hotel Pvt. Ltd, owned by Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar, the proprietors of Chanakya Hotel in Patna.
In return for the hotels, 358 decimals of prime land in Patna was transferred in February 2005 to Delight Marketing Company Pvt Ltd (a company then owned by the family of RJD MP P.C. Gupta) at a price lower than the prevailing circle rates, the agency said.
"The said company possessing valuable chunk of land gradually got transferred to Rabri Devi and her son Tejashwi by way of share purchase at nominal prices...The funds used to acquire the land had dubious origin and had been laundered through IST group of companies belonging to P.C. Gupta by using a non-banking finance company named M/s Abhishek Finance Company Limited," the ED said in a statement.
Subsequently, the ED said, Delight Marketing's shares were acquired by Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav, now the leader of Opposition in Bihar, at "less than fair market value". The ED added: "It is noteworthy that the funds used for acquisition of shares by Rabri Devi are questionable and individuals from whom Tejashwi had purchased shares denied any knowledge of holding them."
The ED has already attached property worth Rs 44.75 crore in connection with the case. Its FIR was based on information revealed in the one filed by the CBI - which was lodged after the income tax department confiscated land belonging to Rabri and Tejashwi in Patna last year, claiming it was bought through a benami transaction.
RJD MP and spokesman Manoj Jha said the party will fight the case. "The entire episode must be seen in the context of the CBI's going ahead despite its legal wing finding no merit in the case. Do we need rocket science to understand who forced the CBI to go ahead? We will fight it legally. We are aware that when you speak a political language that makes the regime uncomfortable, you should be ready for such legal harassment," he said.
Jha was referring to a report in The Indian Express in March this year that the CBI had filed the FIR against the former railways minister last year despite the opinion of its directorate of prosecution that "it (CBI's Economic Offences Division) could not lay hands to any material specifying any act which can be termed as 'overt act to take it as a criminal misconduct' on part of Prasad being the Minister..."
The CBI filed its chargesheet against Lalu and 13 others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct in the railway scam in April this year.
RJD's Jha added that Lalu would file a fresh application for bail on medical grounds, "so the court can examine all his health parameters".
"We know he needs critical care," the spokesman said.
