New Delhi, 06 May (H.S.): The Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday deferred its decision on framing charges against the accused in the railway tender money laundering case. Special Judge Vishal Gogne has now directed that the order be pronounced on May 22.

The court had reserved its order on February 13. On January 28, 2019, the court granted regular bail to Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi Yadav in the Enforcement Directorate’s case as well, on a personal bond of [₹1] lakh each. On January 19, 2019, the court had also granted regular bail to Lalu Yadav in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s case.

On October 13, 2025, the court had ordered the framing of charges against Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, and other accused in the CBI-linked case related to the railway tender scam.

The court had taken cognizance of the ED’s charge sheet on September 17, 2018. A total of 16 people have been named as accused in the case. The ED has named Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, M/s Lara Projects LLP, Sarla Gupta, Premchand Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Nathmal Kakrania, Rahul Yadav, Vijay Tripathi, Devki Nandan Tulsian, M/s Sujata Hotel, Vinay Kochar, Vijay Kochar, Rajeev Kumar Relan, and M/s Abhishek Finance Private Limited as accused.

Lalu Yadav is accused of, while serving as railway minister, transferring two railway hotels to IRCTC and issuing tenders for their maintenance. The contracts for the two hotels in Ranchi and Puri were allegedly transferred to Sujata Hotel, a company belonging to the Kochar brothers.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar