Delhi special court grants bail to Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav in IRCTC land scam case, asks Lalu to present himself

A special court in Delhi has granted bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) land scam case. The court ordered them to deposit a personal bond and surety of Rs one lakh each. However, a production warrant was issued against Lalu who had surrendered himself before the Ranchi court in the fodder scam on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_1285339” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Rabri Devi with her son Tejashwi. PTI[/caption] The CBI, which had on 16 April filed the charge sheet in the case , had said there were enough evidence against Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi and others in the land for contract scam, but due to no proof of the documents being tampered with, the court granted bail to the Yadavs on Friday. Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj asked Lalu to present himself before the court for the next hearing in the case. Earlier, the court had summoned and asked the Lalu’s family and others in the case to appear before the court on Friday. Besides Lalu and his family members, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC PK Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena were also named in the charge sheet. The CBI had informed the court that sanction has been procured from authorities concerned to prosecute Additional Member of Railway Board BK Agarwal, who was then the group general manager of the IRCTC. The other names in the charge sheet include then group general managers of IRCTC VK Asthana and RK 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 have also been named as accused companies in the charge sheet. The CBI had registered a case in July 2017 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. However, post the court’s verdict, RJD leader Manoj Jha told reporters outside the court that their faith in the judiciary has been restored. Tejashwi’s bail will allow him to now campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019. With inputs from agencies