New Delhi: Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has ordered Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, and other accused in the Railway Tender Scam case to appear in court on the next date for framing of charges. Special Judge Vishal Gogane has ordered the verdict on framing of charges to be delivered on October 13th. During the hearing today, the court stated that the verdict on framing of charges has almost been drafted and will be delivered on October 13th.
On May 29th, the court reserved its decision on framing of charges against the accused. During the hearing, Maninder Singh, the lawyer representing Lalu Yadav, argued that there was no evidence to support the prosecution, making the validity of the sanction questionable. He argued that the CBI initially stated that no sanction was required to prosecute Lalu Yadav. Subsequently, the CBI stated that they had received sanction to prosecute. This is not legal.
It should be noted that on February 28, the CBI stated that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused. On January 28, 2019, the court granted regular bail to Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi Yadav in the case filed by the ED. The court granted bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each. On January 19, 2019, the court granted regular bail to Lalu Yadav in the case filed by the CBI.
This was the entire case
On September 17, 2018, the court took cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the ED. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, and 16 others have been named as accused in the case. Those named as accused by the ED include Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, M/s Lara Project LLP, Sarla Gupta, Premchand Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Nath Mal Kakrania, Rahul Yadav, Vijay Tripathi, Devki Nandan Tulsyan, M/s Sujata Hotels, Vinay Kochhar, Vijay Kochhar, Rajiv Kumar Relan, and M/s Abhishek Finance Private Limited.
Lalu Yadav is accused of transferring two railway hotels to IRCTC while he was Railway Minister and issuing tenders for their maintenance. The allocation of two hotels in Ranchi and Puri was transferred to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by the Kochhar brothers.
