Lalu Prasad, wife, son summoned as accused

IRREGULARITIES IN GRANTING CONTRACT OF TWO IRCTC HOTELS

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

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.

The CBI, which had on April 16 filed the charge sheet in the case, had said that there were enough evidence against the accused.

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

Besides Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members, former union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC PK 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 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.