A CBI team questioned Rabri Devi at her Patna home for over four hours
On a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for doing a good job in his drive against corruption, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former Chief Minister Rabri Devi in connection with an alleged hotel scam case when her husband Lalu Prasad was railway minister.
After Rabri Devi refused to go to the CBI office for interrogation, a team of officials questioned her for over four hours at her residence in Patna in a case related to alleged corruption in giving a contract for running two railway hotels to a private firm in 2006.
In July last year, the CBI lodged a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and his son Tejashwi Yadav among others in a case that alleges Lalu Yadav as railway minister handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a private company, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.
The CBI FIR alleged that the RJD chief abused his official position as railway minister for giving undue favours to the private company and acquired a "high value premium land" through a benami firm Delight Marketing Company.
After the tender was awarded to Sujata Hotel, the ownership of Delight Marketing was changed in favour of Rabri Devi and
Tejashwi Yadav between 2010 and 2014.
The CBI has earlier questioned Lalu Prasad and his son in the case. The RJD chief who has been convicted in another corruption case and sentenced to jail is now under
medical treatment in Delhi.
Accusing the BJP of using the CBI against its political opponents, the RJD has alleged that the interrogation was timed on a day PM Modi was in Bihar and shared the stage with Nitish Kumar.
"The CBI went ahead and filed an FIR though its own legal wing said a case wasn't made out. It's a clear case of political vendetta. We are not afraid. Tejashwi Yadav has already dared the CBI to file a charge sheet. Why hasn't the agency filed it?" asked RJD Spokesperson Shakti Yadav.
In July last year, Nitish Kumar pulled out of the grand alliance over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav and his family members, joining hands with the BJP to form the government.