IRCTC scam: Delhi court to decide on ED chargesheet against Lalu & family on September 17

The Patiala House Court in the national capital will decide on September 17 on whether it should take cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the IRCTC scam case, involving former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family.

The Enforcement Directorate has named Rahtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, among others, in the IRCTC scam case.

While the hearing was earlier scheduled for Tuesday, the court deferred it to September 17 reportedly because of some errors in the chargesheet filed by the ED.

This comes just days after the Patiala House Court granted bail to all the accused, including Rabri and Tejashwi, in the 2006 IRCTC hotels maintenance contract scam. All accused were granted bail after furnishing a personal bond and surety amount of Rs 1 lakh each.

The CBI, which had on April 16 filed the chargesheet in the case, had said that there was enough evidence against Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi and others.

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

Besides Lalu Prasad 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 chargesheet.

The other names in the chargesheet include then group general managers of IRCTC VK Asthana and RK Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.