LALU PRASAD, WIFE, SON SUMMONED AS ACCUSED IN IRCTC SCAM CASE

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday summoned RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav and others as accused in an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar directed them to appear before the court on August 31 in a case related to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

“I take cognisance of the charge sheet. The accused be summoned for August 31,” the judge said.

The CBI, which had on April 16 filed the charge sheet in the case, had said that there were enough evidence against Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi and others.

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

Besides Lalu Prasad and his family members, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, Agarwal, then managing direc- tor of IRCTC P K Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena were also named in the charge sheet.

The other names in the charge sheet include 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, 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 (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC 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.