Court Orders Lalu Yadav To Attend Hearing Through Video Conference

A Delhi court on Monday directed RJD chief Lalu Yadav to appear before it through video conference on December 20 in connection with two cases related to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam case.

Special judge Arun Bharadwaj passed the order after he was told that the accused could not appear before the court in the cases filed by the CBI and the ED, as per earlier direction, due to ill-health.

The court directed both the agencies to ensure Mr Yadav's presence through video conference from the hospital, if he is still there, or from jail.

The ED, meanwhile, opposed the bail application of Mr Yadav's wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi Yadav and others, who are currently on interim bail in the money laundering case, on the ground that they are influential people who can hamper the probe if granted the relief.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had said there was enough evidence against Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi and other accused, including Additional Member of Railway Board BK Agarwal, who was then the group general manager of the IRCTC.

Besides them, former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta, his wife Sarla Gupta, PK Goyal, then managing director of IRCTC, and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena are also named as accused in the charge sheet.

Among the other named in the charge sheet are then group general managers of IRCTC VK Asthana and RK Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.

Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Limited have also been named as accused companies in the charge sheet.

The CBI had registered a case in July last year 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, the central probe agency had said.

According to the charge sheet, between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located at Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Private Limited, which is based in Patna.

It is alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated, and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party (Sujata Hotels).

It also claimed that Vinay Kochhar on February 25, 2005, sold commercial property in the form of three acres of land in Patna through 10 sale deeds for Rs 1.47 crore to Delight Marketing, in which Sarla Gupta was a director as a front benami holder on behalf of Lalu Prasad.

Between 2010 and 2014, this land was further transferred, the CBI alleged.

In 2001, it was decided to handover the management of catering services of the Indian Railways, including of its hotels, to the IRCTC. Two such hotels, BNR Hotels in Ranchi and Puri, were also identified and an MoU was signed between the railways and the IRCTC on March 19, 2004.

According to an FIR flied by the CBI, Lalu Prasad, the then railway minister, entered into criminal conspiracy with the owner of Sujata hotels, Sarla Gupta, the wife of his close associate Prem Chand Gupta, an RJD MP in the Rajya Sabha, and IRCTC officials for "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others".

The probe agency also alleged that BNR hotels were transferred to Sujata Hotels through a rigged and manipulated tender process managed by PK Goel, the then managing director of IRCTC.

Based on the CBI case, the ED also lodged a case of money laundering against Lalu, Rabri, Tejaswi and others.