IRCTC scam: Delhi court reserves order on summoning Lalu Yadav

A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on whether to summon Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, wife Rabri Yadav and their son Tejashvi Yadav as the accused in the IRCTC scam case.

According to news agency ANI, special judge Arun Bhardwaj said that the court needs time to go through the documents filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) before taking cognisance of the charge sheet.

The Enforcement Directorate had demanded Lalu Yadav to be produced before it and had summonedothers accused in the case.

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On August 31 the court had granted bail to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav on a personal bond of one lakh and one surety of the like amount.

The case involves alleged irregularities in grant of an operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

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 charge sheet said that between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of 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 a private firm Sujata Hotel Private Limited based in Patna.

It alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party (Sujata Hotels).

Lalu Yadav, the then railway minister, allegedly entered into criminal conspiracy with owners of Sujata hotels, Sarla Gupta, wife of his close associate Prem Chand Gupta, an RJD MP in Rajya Sabha, and IRCTC officials for "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others", the CBI FIR had alleged.

(With inputs from agencies)