Bhubaneswar, July 7: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today conducted raids at the Chanakya BNR Hotel in Odisha's Puri connection with an alleged tender scam during Lalu Prasad's tenure as the Union railway minister.

It has been alleged that Yadav and the managing director of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had allegedly handed over the operational management of the heritage hotel to Sujata Hotel Private Limited.

"A team of CBI officials from Bhubaneswar today visited the hotel and scrutinised several documents. The officials have also taken with them a few papers and the 37-room hotel is functioning normally. The hotel management is co-operating with the CBI officials," said a hotel employee.

The BNR Hotel in Puri was set up in 1902 after introduction of the Calcutta-Puri train service by the erstwhile Bengal Nagpur Railway (now South-Eastern Railway). While the railways managed the hotel for a long time, the administration of the hotel was leased out to Sujata Hotel Private Limited (the proprietors of Hotel Chanakya in Patna) in 2006.

Before this, for sometime, the hotel located just 200m from the beach was also managed by the IRCTC, the subsidiary of the Indian Railways, before being leased out to the private party. The rooms and the public area have rare photographs of the achievements of the Indian Railways.