Lalu appears before CBI for questioning in hotels-for-land

RJD leader and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav today reached the CBI headquarters here for questioning in connection with alleged corruption in awarding the maintenance contract for two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

Yadav, who arrived at the headquarters at 11 am, was accompanied by his daughter Misa and did not speak to the media. He was taken to the investigation officer while Misa was asked to wait in the lobby, CBI sources said.

His son Tejashwi Yadav, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar, is scheduled to appear before the agency tomorrow.

The two were asked by the CBI to appear for questioning on October 5 and 6 in the alleged corruption case. This was after both leaders expressed their inability to appear on October 4 and 5.

It is alleged that Yadav, as railway minister in 2006, handed over maintenance of two Railway hotels -- BNR Ranchi and Puri -- to Sujata Hotel (a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar) after receiving a bribe in the form of three acres of prime land through a 'benami' (shell) company.