Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo, Lalu Prasad Yadav was granted bail on January 28 by the Delhi’s Patiala High Court in a money laundering case against him in the IRCTC scam. His family members including his wife, Rabri Devi, son, Tejashwi Yadav and others accused in the same case were also granted bail.
However, Lalu Prasad will continue to stay in jail over the fodder scam cases against him.
The bail was granted on a personal bond of Rs 1 Lakh and a surety amount each, according to reports. The next date of hearing is February 11.
Former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and others have been granted regular bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 Lakh and a surety amount each. Next date of hearing is 11 February. https://t.co/yIBvvsWYo6
— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2019
A Delhi court on January 19 had extended till January 28 the interim bail granted to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and others in two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam cases filed by the CBI and the ED.
The CBI, which on April 16, 2018, filed the charge sheet against 14 members in the case, had said that there was enough evidence against the accused.
The RJD leader is accused in a case of alleged irregularities, as he had allegedly granted operational contract of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri to a private firm (Sujata Hotel Private Limited), owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot in Patna in 2006.
It was then alleged that the operational contract tender was rigged and manipulated to help Sujata Hotels procure the same.
Apart from Lalu Yadav and his family members, former union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, BK Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC, and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena was also named in the charge sheet.
The other accused are the then group general managers of IRCTC V K Asthana and R K Goyal. In addition to them, the directors of Sujata Hotel and the owners of Chanakya Hotel Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar are also made accused in the IRCTC scam.
The CBI had to get prior sanction from the authorities then, to prosecute B K Agarwal, the additional director of the Railway Board, who was the managing director of IRCTC at that time.
Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted and is currently serving 14 years imprisonment for indulging in fodder scam when he was the Chief Minister of Bihar.
He and his family, including daughter Misa Bharati and son Tejashwi Yadav, are facing several cases related to disproportionate assets and also for conducting benami transactions.
Earlier, the Income Tax department has seized the benami properties of Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti, son-in-law Shailesh Kumar and son and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav in Gurugram, Delhi and Rewari.
