A Delhi court on July 30 summoned Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav and other accused in connection with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam.Special Judge Arvind Kumar asked all the accused to appear before the court on August 31 in a case related to alleged irregularities in allotting a contract of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels in 2004 to 2009 when Lalu Yadav was the Railway Minister.
The court has issued the summons after taking cognizance of the charge-sheet filed by CBI on April 16 in the case.
Along with the Lalu and his wife, the charge-sheet was also filed against a Delhi-based private company, Vijay Kochhar, and Vinay Kochhar; directors of Sujata Hotels, PK Goyal; the then Managing Director of IRCTC, former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, other officials from various departments under the IRCTC, including IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena.
Probe agency said that the CBI had registered a case in July 2017 and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, and Gurugram in connection. The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption.
The probe agency has alleged that Lalu Yadav, the then railway minister, was aware about the whole process. It surfaced that while over 15 bid documents were received for both the hotels, IRCTC has no records of bidders other than the Sujata Hotels.
