Delhi court frames charges of cheating, corruption against Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi

New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) A Delhi court on Monday framed charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and 11 others in the alleged IRCTC scam case.

Special Judge Vishal Gogne 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, a former railway minister, the judge 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 POCA.

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 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 said.

The maximum punishment under the POCA is 10 years, while for cheating is seven years.

Judge Gogne said, "The court has reached a prima facie finding that there exists a grave suspicion in the manner in which the shares of M/s DMCPL were transferred to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at undervalued rates." He underlined that any private transaction reflective of a manipulated and deceptive consideration, especially where the consideration was much lower than the ordinary market norms, was a "dishonest and fraudulent exercise" because of the loss it caused to the public exchequer.

"The loss to the exchequer is not a euphemism but a monetary loss capable of quantification through the appropriate evidence, the judge said.

He said private participation in the railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri was a way of private players ingratiating themselves with the then minister, which was done by transferring prime land in Patna to his wife and son through the "acolytes of the minister." The "conspiracy may be sublime but not entirely hidden from the court's view," he said, as he termed the transactions prima facie "fraudulent." The judge said that the individual strands of the cheating which occurred from 2005 to 2014 were intrinsically interwoven with the larger conspiracy between multiple other accused.

"Hence, it is neither possible nor required, at this stage, for the court to unravel what can only be segregated through appreciation of evidence," he said.

The FIR in the present matter was registered by the CBI on July 5, 2017, and the charge sheet was filed in April 2018.

The court took cognisance of the final report on July 30, 2018, following which the agency filed its sanction on July 23, 2020. PTI MNR VN VN