IRCTC case: Judge frames money laundering charges against Lalu, 8 others, quotes Tagore – what happened in Delhi Court
The Judge said Tagore held the moral compass for the Indian freedom movement and his words often bestowed cohesion in times of prevarication among the balladeers of freedom.
A Delhi court has ordered the framing of money laundering charges against former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and eight others in relation to the alleged IRCTC hotel scam case. This was announced on September 10th, after Special Judge Vishal Gogne delivered the substantive portions of the court's order. The judge stated that exacting standards for proving criminal intent were not necessary at this stage; rather, the court only needed to ascertain whether there was a strong suspicion against the accused.
The court had previously charged Lalu Prasad and eleven others with corruption in connection with the same scam in October 2021. Judge Gogne emphasized that the nature, timing, and course of the investigation did not suggest a politically motivated complaint against Lalu Prasad, as argued by his legal team. The case involves allegations of money laundering spanning from 2005 to 2014, when railway officials allegedly manipulated a tender for the lease of radio hotels in Ranchi and Puli for Sujata Hotels.
The court alleges that as a quid pro quo, the directors of Sujata Hotels, Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar, transferred their land in Patna to a company controlled by Lalu Prasad's associates Prem Chand and Sarla Gupta at an undervalued rate. This company was subsequently controlled by Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav, who transferred shares in the land to them at a low price.
The court strongly suspects that Lalu Prasad's abuse of power created proceeds of crime, which ended up in the hands of his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav.
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