IRCTC Scam: Lalu Prasad Yadav to appear in Court via Video Conferencing

Guwahati: Providing relief to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RLD) chief and former Railway Minister and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Patiala House Courts adjourned the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) case against him on Monday. Lalu Prasad was accused of alleged irregularities in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

The RJD chief has been asked to appear again before the court on December 20 via video conferencing. The court directed the CBI to make all arrangements for the video conferencing. Lalu, who is currently lodged in a Jharkhand jail, could not make it to the previous hearing on October 6. The Patiala House Court granted bail to Rabri and Tejashwi Yadav in the CBI case on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of a like amount last month.

However, Lalu Prasad wasn’t granted regular bail in the Enforcement Directorate case, after the agency sought time to file a reply to the bail applications. It may be mentioned that the court had earlier granted interim bail to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi, except Prasad, on August 31 till today in the case filed by the CBI after the agency had sought time to file a reply on Saturday.

Earlier, the court had summoned and asked Prasad’s family and all others involved to appear before it.

The CBI, which had on April 16 filed the chargesheet in the case, had said there was enough evidence against Prasad, Rabri, Tejashwi and others to charge them.

Earlier, the court was informed to CBI that sanction has been procured from authorities concerned to prosecute Additional Member of Railway Board BK Agarwal, who was then the group general manager of the IRCTC.

Besides Lalu Prasad, and his family members, the others whose names feature in the chargesheet include former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta and Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC PK Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena . The Chargesheet also includes names of then group general managers of IRCTC V K Asthana and R K Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.

Delight Marketing Company, k which has now been renamed as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Limited have also been named as accused companies in the chargesheet.

It is worth mentioning that The CBI had registered a case in July last year and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, and Gurugram in connection with the case.

The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption, the central probe agency had said.

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