CBI raids premises of Lalu Prasad’s family over hotel tender irregularities.

Patna: CBI on Friday raided 12 places across the country over alleged irregularities in awarding of tenders for hotel maintenance when the RJD chief was the railways minister.

The case has been registered against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi, who is the deputy chief minister of Bihar, CBI sources said. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation managing director P.K. Goyal and the wife of Prasad’s confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata, are among the other accused. Gupta is a former union corporate affairs minister.

The simultaneous raids in Bihar’s capital Patna, Delhi, Gurgaon in Haryana, Puri in Odisha, and Ranchi in Jharkhand began at around 7:30am.

The RJD chief was not at his home when a CBI team reached his residence in Patna. He is in Ranchi to appear in a CBI court in the fodder scandal that involves large-scale embezzlement of government funds.

The CBI is examining irregularities in awarding tenders to private firms for operating railway hotels located close to stations.

Tejashwi and his elder brother Tej Pratap, who is the Bihar health minister, are also battling charges of corruption.

The RJD chief, who has proposed a grand alliance to take on the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha election, accuses the Modi government of a witch hunt against his family and denies the charges.

Prasad is being tried in the fodder scandal. He had to step down as a Member of Parliament and was barred from electoral politics for at least six years on being found guilty in one of the cases in 2013.