New Delhi, May 29 (HS): The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi has reserved its decision on the matter of framing charges against Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, and others accused in the railway tender scam. Special Judge Vishal Gogne has scheduled the verdict for July 23.

During the hearing, lawyer Maninder Singh, representing Lalu Yadav, stated that there is no evidence to proceed with prosecution, thus questioning the validity of the sanction. Initially, the CBI claimed there was no need for sanction to prosecute Lalu Yadav. Later, the CBI stated that they had obtained the sanction for prosecution. This is not legally permissible.

On February 28, the CBI claimed there was solid evidence to prosecute the accused. On January 28, 2019, the court granted bail to Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi Yadav on a personal bond of one lakh rupees in a case registered by the ED. On January 19, 2019, the court also granted regular bail to Lalu Yadav in a case filed by the CBI.

The court took cognizance of a chargesheet filed by the ED on September 17, 2018. In this case, 16 individuals including Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi have been made accused. These include Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, M/s Lara Projects LLP, Sarla Gupta, Premchand Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Nath Mal Kakaraniya, Rahul Yadav, Vijay Tripathi, Devki Nandan Tulsiyan, M/s Sujata Hotel, Vinay Kochhar, Vijay Kochhar, Rajiv Kumar Relan, and M/s Abhishek Finance Private Limited.

Lalu Yadav is accused of transferring two railway hotels to IRCTC while being the railway minister and issuing tenders for the maintenance of these hotels. The allotment of the two hotels in Ranchi and Puri was transferred to the Kochhar brothers' company, Sujata Hotel.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar