NEW DELHI: A Delhi court framed Monday charges against former railway minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and 11 others in the alleged IRCTC scam that rigged railway hotel contracts for favoured private players.Rabri and Tejashwi prima facie emerge as participants in the criminal conspiracy of which Lalu Prasad was seemingly the “fountainhead”, Special Judge Vishal Gogne said. The “individual strands of the cheating” between 2005 and 2014 were “intrinsically interwoven” with a larger network of collusion among multiple accused, he added.According to CBI, when Lalu was railway minister between 2004 and 2014, two BNR Hotels of railways – in Ranchi and Puri – were first transferred to IRCTC and then leased to Patna-based Sujata Hotels through a manipulated tender process. In return, land parcels in Patna were allegedly transferred at undervalued rates to Lalu’s family through firms linked to the hotel owners. Investigators allege this quid pro quo formed the heart of the scam. CBI registered the FIR on July 5, 2017, and filed its charge sheet in April 2018. Court took cognisance of the final report on July 30, 2018, and prosecution sanction followed in July 2020.Those named in the charge sheet include former IRCTC group general managers VK Asthana and RK Goyal, and Sujata Hotels directors Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, who also own Patna’s Chanakya Hotel. Two firms – Sujata Hotels and Delight Marketing Company (now LARA Projects LLP) – are among the accused.”You conspired for the undervalued purchase of land parcels. You conspired with other accused for the subsequent transfer of effective control over these land parcels to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav,” Judge Gogne said while pronouncing the order. All accused, including the Yadav family, were present in court. The court said the transfer of land to Lalu’s wife and son by “commercial players” suggested “an instance of crony capitalism fostered in the guise of eliciting private participation” in the operation of railway hotels. “This conspiracy may be sublime but not entirely hidden from the court’s view,” the judge said.Judge Gogne said CBI had presented a “cogent chain of evidence” linking the accused, adding that the agency “was possibly led by the stench to the rot”. He described Lalu’s “institutional awareness and possible intervention” as the “glue” binding the conspiracy, calling the alleged quid pro quo “a principal conspiracy among multiple persons” from the start.Concluding that there was “adequate substantiation” of the allegations, the judge said the criminal conspiracy alleged by CBI is “the thread” connecting all accused – marking the start of trial proceedings in one of the country’s most politically charged corruption cases.
