AMN / NEW DELHI
A Delhi court has granted interim bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad till January 19 in two IRCTC scam cases filed by the CBI and the ED. Special Judge Arun Bharadwaj granted relief to Prasad after he was produced before the court through video conference from a Ranchi jail, where he is lodged in another case.
The cases relate to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm. 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.
It said, there was enough evidence against Prasad, his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, his son, Tejashwi and other accused, the then the group general manager of the IRCTC, B K Agarwal.
The court directed both the CBI and the ED to file their replies to Prasad’s application seeking regular bail in both the cases.
The court had earlier granted regular bail to Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in the CBI case, while they are on interim bail in the ED matter, which was extended till January 19, the next date of hearing.
According to the charge sheet, between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located at Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC and later it was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Private Limited. It is alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help Sujata Hotels, all in Prasad’s knowledge.