New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday put off by three weeks the formal step of framing money laundering charges against former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and members of his family in the IRCTC hotels case.
Special Judge Prashant Kumar adjourned the proceedings to November 19 after the prosecution did not oppose the pleas seeking time. He made it clear, however, that every accused would have to be present on the next date unless exempted by an order of a superior court, or covered by a stay.
The case before the court is the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering complaint. Sixteen people are arrayed as accused. On September 10, the predecessor court discharged seven of them and ordered that charges be framed against the remaining nine.
That court had recorded that there was a strong suspicion against the accused, and that the nature, timing and course of the investigation did not suggest the complaint was driven by political vendetta against Lalu Prasad — an argument his counsel had pressed.
A separate track has already moved ahead. In October last year, the same court framed corruption charges against the RJD leader and 11 others in the CBI's case arising from the same alleged scandal.
The agency's account of the alleged fraud runs from 2005 to 2014, when Lalu Prasad was railway minister. It alleges that a tender was manipulated by railway officials so that the lease of IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri went to Sujata Hotels.
As quid pro quo, the ED has alleged, the directors of Sujata Hotels — Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar — transferred prime land in Patna to a company called DMCPL, controlled by Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, at undervalued rates. Prem Chand Gupta and Sarla Gupta have been described by the agency as close associates of Lalu Prasad.
Shares of that company were then transferred to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav at a pittance, according to the ED, and the entity that came to control the land was Lara Projects LLP.
All of this remains at the stage of allegation. Framing of charges is the point at which a court states what it will try; the accused have denied wrongdoing and the matter has not been decided on evidence.
Lalu Prasad's counsel had argued political motivation; the court rejected that framing at the earlier stage while ordering charges against nine of the 16.
The November 19 date will be the first occasion on which the full set of accused is expected before the special court since the adjournment.