Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Tejashwi Yadav, son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today in connection with the Railway hotel tender case.

The CBI had summoned Lalu Yadav yesterday in regard with the hotels-for-land scam, after their inability to appear before it on October 3.

Yesterday, Lalu was taken to the investigation officer where he was grilled for almost 7 hours, while Misa Bharti, his daughter, was asked to wait in a public area.

Lalu Prasad Yadav is facing charges of awarding maintenance contract to private firms. In 2006, he allegedly assigned two hotels, both owned by the Railways when Lalu was the Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009, to a private firm through a 15-year-lease. In return, the firm allegedly bought a three-acre plot of land in Patna which was routed through a jumble of shell firms to Lalu’s children, two of whom were ministers in Bihar till July.

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.

The FIR lodged by the CBI against RJD chief stated that there were irregularities in awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of BNR Hotels in Ranchi and Puri.

The investigating agency has alleged that the tender process was rigged, manipulated and the conditions were tweaked by the then Railway Minister to help a private hotel company.

On July 27, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a separate case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following the CBI FIR and is probing allegations against Lalu and others for alleged transaction of money through shell companies.