IRCTC case: Delhi HC to hear Lalu Prasad’s petition against framing of charges

The Delhi High Court is likely to hear on Monday the petition of RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav against a special court’s order framing charges against him and his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and 11 others in the alleged IRCTC scam case. The former Railway Minister had recently moved the High Court, assailing the order. The matter is listed before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. Earlier, on October 13, the court had framed charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused persons.

It had made a scathing observation that the land and share transactions in the case were “possibly an instance of crony capitalism fostered in the garb of eliciting private participation in the Railways’ hotels at Ranchi and Puri.” Besides Lalu Yadav, the court had framed charges against Pradeep Kumar Goel, Rakesh Saksena, Bhupendra Kumar Agarwal, Rakesh Kumar Gogia and Vinod Kumar Asthana under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d)(ii) and (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. Section 13 (2) deals with the punishment for criminal misconduct by a public servant, and Section 13(1)(d)(ii) and (iii) with abuse of position by a public servant to obtain favours. The court had also directed that the charge be framed under IPC Section 420 (cheating) against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi, M/s LARA Projects LLP, Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, Sarla Gupta, and Prem Chand Gupta.

“A common charge is directed to be framed against all (14) accused under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) IPC read with section 420 IPC and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d)(ii) and (iii) PC Act,” the court had said. The maximum punishment under the PC Act is 10 years, while for cheating is seven years.