ED summons Tejashwi, Rabri in IRCTC case

New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that it has summoned RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in connection with a money laundering probe into the 2006 IRCTC hotel maintenance contract case.

An ED official, confirming the dates of the summons, told IANS: "We have summoned Tejashwi and Rabri Devi on November 20 and 24 respectively."

On November 13, the financial-probe agency had questioned Tejashwi Yadav, for the second time for over eight-and-a-half hours.

He was questioned by the ED for over nine hours on October 10.

Rabri Devi, against whom the ED has issued seven summons, has not testified before the agency for questioning in the case.

The ED is probing financial irregularities in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Tejashwi, his father and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad and other family members.

On July 27, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case under the PMLA following an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and is probing the trail of funds allegedly transferred through shell companies.

The CBI registered a corruption case on July 5 against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav for alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts for two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006 to a private firm when the RJD chief was the Railway Minister.

The contracts were given to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, allegedly in lieu of bribe in the form of a plot of prime land in Bihar, the CBI said.

Apart from Ahluwalia Contractors' promoter Bikramjeet Singh Ahluwalia, who has also been questioned in the case, former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta's wife Sarla Gupta and then IRCTC Managing Director P.K. Goel are also accused in the case.