A fresh case of has been registered against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED has registered a money laundering case against him and his family members in a railway hotels allotment corruption case dating back to the UPA tenure. The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.
The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a ‘Benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta. Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director PK Goel.
Prasad’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.
The central probe agency has taken cognizance of a CBI FIR in this regard to take actions. The ED, under the PMLA, has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets and it is expected that the agency will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case.