IRCTC scam: Lalu to appear before Delhi court through video conferencing on Dec 20

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Patiala house court on Wednesday adjourned the CBI case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in IRCTC scam for December 20. Lalu Yadav will appear again on December 20 through video conferencing. The court also directed CBI to make all arrangements of video conferencing.

Special judge Arun Bharadwaj passed the directions after he was told that the accused could not appear before the court, as per earlier direction, owing to his ill health.

The court directed the CBI and ED to ensure Lalu's presence from video conference from the hospital, if he is still lodged there, or from jail.

The ED, meanwhile, opposed the bail application of Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi Yadav and others on the grounds that they were influential persons who could hamper the probe if granted the relief.

Lalu Yadav is currently lodged in a paying ward of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) due to ill health. He was convicted in the Rs 900-crore fodder scam.

The RJD chief had surrendered before a special CBI court in late August, following the Jharkhand High Court's refusal to extend his bail on medical grounds.

The health condition of Yadav deteriorated due to a festering boil on his right leg, the doctor attending him had said on Sunday.

The sugar level and blood pressure of the RJD chief, who is a diabetic, had shot up in the past two to three days due to the boil, Dr Umesh Prasad of the RIMS, who attends Prasad, told PTI.

The case Lalu was convicted in, known as fodder scam, is related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds from the treasuries of various districts of undivided Bihar in the 1990s when RJD was in power and Yadav the chief minister then.

The case in which the Delhi court adjourned the hearing on Wednesday, the IRCTC scam, is related to alleged irregularities in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

Besides Lalu Prasad, and his eldest son and wife, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta and Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC P K Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena have also been named in the charge sheet.

The other names in the charge sheet include 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.

Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Limited were also named as accused companies in the charge sheet.

The CBI had registered a case in July last year and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurgaon in connection with the case.

The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption, the central probe agency had said.

The ED had filed a case based on the the CBI FIR.

(From inputs from agencies)