IRCTC ‘scam’: Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi move Delhi court, seek a month to examine witnesses

“At the outset of the proceedings today, an application has been moved on behalf of accused no. 1, 2 and 4 seeking time for four weeks in order to examine the witnesses who have been summoned in the present block of dates. It is also prayed in the application that the matter may be thereafter be listed only once a week,” Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue said in an order.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, who had appeared for the accused, said four criminal cases were pending against the Yadavs, and that in all of them, day-to-day proceedings had been ordered.

Singh also requested the court to postpone the hearing by four weeks, as he needed time to review the 18,000-page chargesheet filed against the accused.

“Your honour took four months to pass orders on the charge. We thought of going through everything. Our clients are not here. The campaigning (for the Bihar elections) is going on. The entire scenario in the chargesheet has to be read in connection with and in correlation with the order on charge. There are certain aspects in your honour’s order that are not even in the chargesheet,” the Senior Advocate said.

On the other hand, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) D P Singh opposed the request and said that, as per the Supreme Court’s directions, cases against MPs and MLAs have to be tried expeditiously.

Lalu, who was minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009, has been accused by CBI of allegedly favouring a private company in the award of operation and maintenance contracts for two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels in return for prime land in Patna. IRCTC is a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways.

According to the CBI’s case, there were irregularities in tenders awarded to a private company, Sujata Hotels, for the development, maintenance, and operation of two IRCTC hotels, BNR Ranchi, and BNR Puri.

BNR, or Bengal Nagpur Railway, was the predecessor of South Eastern Railway, which is headquartered in Kolkata.

CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) in 2017, and submitted a chargesheet against Lalu, Rabri, and Tejashwi the following year.