Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi Yadav are accused in a money laundering case.
New Delhi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav were granted bail by Delhi court in a money laundering case related to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam today.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj granted relief to each of the accused persons on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and surety of like amounts.The court had on January 19 extended the interim bail granted to the three which ended today.
On being granted bail, Tejashwi Yadav said, "We are confident of getting justice. We trust the judiciary."
The case relates to alleged money laundering in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.The next date of hearing in the case is February 11.
The IRCTC case involves three acres of land in Patna where a mall has been planned. Lalu Yadav has been charged with facilitating, as the country's Railways Minister in 2006, a contract to a private company to run hotels, in exchange for the premium plot as bribe.
The land was first transferred to the wife of a lawmaker of Mr Yadav's party and finally to Mr Yadav's wife and son Tejashwi at a dirt-cheap rate, the CBI says.
According to the charge sheet filed by CBI, between 2004 and 2014, BNR hotels in Puri and Ranchi were first transferred to IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, given on lease to Sujata Hotels Private Limited, which is based in Patna, Bihar. It is alleged that the tender process was rigged and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party - Sujata Hotels.
Based on the CBI case, ED also filed money laundering case against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and others. Former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta, then managing director of IRCTC PK Goyal was also named as accused in the charge sheet.
The CBI registered a case in July 2017, and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurgaon in connection with the case. The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, CBI had said.
Between 2010 and 2014, this land was further transferred, CBI alleged.