The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday moved a Delhi court seeking cancellation of bail to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation scam, PTI reported.
In its plea, the agency claimed that Yadav has openly warned CBI officers against carrying out an investigation in the case, according to ANI.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel issued a notice to Yadav and sought his reply by September 28.
The case relates to alleged irregularities in a tender awarded to a private company called Sujata Hotels to develop and operate two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2005, when Tejashwi’s father Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union railways minister. In return, he allegedly received a three-acre plot worth Rs 45 crore through a benami company owned by the wife of a Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian.
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 Tejashwi Yadav and his mother, former Chief Minister Rabri Devi 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.
The CBI had launched an investigation into the case in July 2017. In April 2018, it had filed a chargesheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and son, and 11 others in the case.
Tejashwi Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi were granted bail in the case in October 2018. Lalu Yadav was granted bail in January 2019.
The Enforcement Directorate had also registered a money laundering probe in connection with the case in 2018.
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