Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said the railways hotel tender case against him was falsified and concocted by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, ANI reported on Thursday.
“It is a forged case,” the former chief minister said after appearing before the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the case. “Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party have found [that] the only aid to finish my political existence is by filing a case against me and my family. They want to ruin us.”
Lalu Prasad Yadav is accused of illegally giving a tender to a private hotel firm when he was the railway minister in 2006. His son Tejashwi Yadav is expected to appear before the investigating agency on Friday. Lalu Yadav went to the CBI only after the agency summoned Tejashwi and him four different times.
“The CBI personnel have behaved very well with me because they are not a party in this matter…The party involved here is the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Sangh Parivar, Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Yadav said. Claiming that he was innocent, he added: “I believe in the judicial system of our country and I will fight this fraud case against me.”
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief also added that the Modi-led government is heading towards a dictatorial regime.
On July 7, the Central Bureau of Investigation had raided more than 12 locations, including the homes of Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav, in Delhi, Gurugram, Patna, Ranchi and Puri.
The CBI had alleged irregularities in the tenders allotted to private company Sujata Hotels in 2006 to develop and maintain the railways’ heritage BNR Hotels in Ranchi and Puri. The agency claimed that, in exchange, Yadav had received a two-acre plot in Patna, where a mall is being built.
