Railway hotel case: Rabri Devi grilled by Enforcement Directorate for 6 hours

Former chief minister Rabri Devi, responding at last to repeated summonses for questioning in an alleged land-for-railway hotels corruption case, was quizzed for more than seven hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Saturday.

The quizzing, which began at 11.45 am ended at 7 pm. Rabri, wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, had ignored summonses from the ED at least six times.

According to sources, around 55 questions were asked and she refused to answer many on the ground that they were ‘wrong’.

Earlier in the morning, Rabri, accompanied by her eldest daughter Misa Bharti and her husband, reached the ED’s zonal office after the agency heeded to her request for the questioning to be done in Patna instead of Delhi. The case has been registered in the national capital.

The investigation is connected to a decision taken by Lalu, who is accused of having abused his position as railway minister in 2004 to illegally hand over maintenance contracts of two railway hotels to a private company after allegedly receiving a prime piece of land as a bribe.

Most of Lalu’s family — who wield influence in Bihar — are named as suspects in the case. Prasad and his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, a former deputy CM, have been questioned by the ED, which is probing the money laundering aspect of the case. The corruption charges are being investigated by the CBI.

Reacting to ED’s quizzing , RJD chief Lalu Prasad attacked the central government and the BJP for targeting their family. “How does Sushil Kumar Modi (Bihar deputy CM) know that the chargesheet will be filed soon?” asked Prasad.

“It’s the ED’s duty to quiz and we are not afraid of it,” he said.