NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed a charge-sheet against RJD leader Lalu Prasad , his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi as well as his younger son and successor-designate Tejashwi Yadav along with 11 others, including senior railway officials, in the IRCTC corruption case.

This is the first time that Tejaswi, leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly, has landed in the crosshairs of CBI which has so far secured four convictions of his father in the sprawling fodder scam.

The agency has accused Lalu Prasad of abusing his role as railway minister in the UPA government to award the contract for running two railway hotels —BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri — to Sujata Hotels in exchange for a plot of prime land in Patna.

“We have presented robust evidence to back our case that Lalu Prasad and his family were given the land as part of the quid pro quo. Even though Lalu remained elusive about the irregularities during his questioning last year, there is enough documentary evidence and witnesses’ statements to prosecute him,” said a CBI officer requesting anonymity.

Among those named in the chargesheet on Monday other than the Yadav family include additional member of Railway Board B K Aggarwal (then group general manager IRCTC); former IRCTC managing director P K Goel; former IRCTC Director Rakesh Saxena; R K Gogia (former GGM IRCTC), Prem Chand Gupta, a close confidant of Lalu Prasad; his wife Sarla Gupta, who acted as the front for Lalu; Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels and Chanakya Hotel ), V K Asthana (then GGM, IRCTC) and two companies – Sujata Hotels and Lara Projects.

CBI sources told TOI that they had recovered the note sheets from the ministry of railways from the time when Lalu was railway minister from 2004 to 2009, which clearly mention that it was he who ordered award of the contract to Sujata Hotels. These note-sheets, statements of Lalu, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi, railway and IRCTC officials and private persons have been included in the chargesheet.

Rabri Devi’s statement was recorded last week itself, said sources.

CBI has claimed that the tender conditions for railway hotels’ maintenance were tweaked in favour of Sujata Hotels and in return, three acres of land in western Patna was given to Delight Marketing (whose promoters are known to the family of the RJD leader) at a very low cost, and later this land was transferred to another company— Lara Projects—owned by the Lalu’s family.

Explaining the modus operandi, CBI says Vinay Kochhar sold three acres of premium land in Patna for Rs 1.47 crore to Delight Marketing on February 25, 2005 which was way below the circle rate. Delight Markerting, CBI says, was a benami company owned by Sarla who acted as a front for Lalu.

The upkeep of BNR hotels was transferred by IRCTC to Sujata Hotels through an allegedly rigged and manipulated tender process managed by P K Goel, the then MD IRCTC, CBI said.

CBI has alleged that as railway minister, Lalu was aware about the whole process and was keeping a track of the tender proceedings. While over 15 bid documents were received for both the hotels, IRCTC has no records of bidders other than Sujata Hotels.

