The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday questioned former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her son Tejashwi Yadav in connection with an alleged hotel tender scam. Yadav was questioned for over four hours in Patna, while an investigation team conducted searches at Rabri Devi’s house, ANI reported.
The mother and son are accused in the case along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav, who is serving a jail sentence in several fodder scam cases.
In July 2017, the CBI had launched an investigation, alleging that Lalu Yadav had used his influence as railway minister in 2005 to award a tender for developing and running two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri to a company called Sujata Hotels. In return, he allegedly received a three-acre plot, reportedly worth Rs 45 crore, through a benami company owned by the wife of a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP.
The plot was also shown as agricultural land, which caused losses to the state exchequer as agricultural land is exempt from certain taxes. After Lalu Yadav demitted office in 2009, the shares of the benami company were transferred to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014. The term benami refers to a transaction or contract held or carried out in the name of someone other than the person who has financed it.
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