IRCTC scam : Delhi court grants bail to Tejashwi Yadav, Rabri Devi

A Delhi Patiala House court on Saturday granted interim bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav and others accused in the IRCTC land scam case. The Court also directed all the accused to furnish a personal bond and surety amount of Rs 1 lakh each.

However, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav did not appear before the court due to his ill health. The court has fixed November 19 of this year as the next date of hearing and asked Lalu to appear via video conferencing in the cases filed by CBI and ED.

The family of Lalu Yadav and some IRCTC officials have been accused of misusing their position for granting sub-lease of the rights of two Railway hotels at Puri and Ranchi to Ms Sujata Hotel Pvt. Ltd owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar.

In return, 358 decimal of land was transferred to Ms Delight Marketing Company Pvt Ltd (a company owned by the family of P C Gupta) in February 2005 at a rate lesser than the then market value. P C Gupta is a close associate of Lalu Prasad Yadav and an MP from RJD.

The CBI filed a charge sheet against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta. The then managing director of IRCTC P K Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena were also named in the charge sheet.

The other important names in the charge sheet include the 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. The ED had filed a case based on the FIR of CBI.

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