CBI chargesheets Tejashwi, Lalu, Rabri in IRCTC case

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday filed a chargesheet in a special CBI court here which included the name of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s son and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. Also in the chargesheet for alleged irregularities in grant of an operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm were Delight marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Ltd, Lalu Prasad himself and his wife Rabri Devi.

Former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta, his wife Sarla Gupta, then IRCTC Group GM B K Agarwal, who is at present Railway Board Additional Member, then IRCTC MD P K Goyal, then IRCTC Director Rakesh Saxena, IRCTC Group GMS V K Asthana and R K Goyal, and Sujata Hotels directors Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar.

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 CBI had said.

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday filed a chargesheet against former railway minister Lalu Prasad and others in connection with alleged corruption in handing out a management contract for two IRCTC hotels to a private company, officials said.

Former Bihar chief minister and Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi were also among the 14 people named by the CBI in the chargesheet file in a court here.

The agency had recently questioned former Rabri Devi in connection with the case, they said.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.

The FIR alleged that the RJD leader abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of "high value premium land" through the benami firm, Delight Marketing Company.

As a quid pro quo, he "dishonestly and fraudulently" awarded the contract to them for the two hotels, the FIR had alleged.