IRCTC hotel corruption case: Court rejects plea of Lalu Prasad Yadav against day-to-day trial

New Delhi [India], November 11 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday rejected pleas of Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi against a day-to-day trial in the IRCTC Hotels corruption case. The court said their prayer is not maintainable, practicable or justified.
The special CBI court is recording the Prosecution's evidence after framing charges against them and other accused persons.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne rejected the pleas and said that their prayer for the matter to be listed only after a gap of one week between dates is not maintainable, practicable or justified and is declined for the reasons recorded.
While rejecting the application the special court also referred to the order of the Delhi High Court.
"Apparently, far from restricting the listing of such matters to only once a week, the High Court in fact directed that the listing be at least once a week. Moreover, a specific direction was rendered for a day-to-day listing of the matter till the examination/cross-examination of witnesses was concluded."
The application was opposed by Senior Counsel DP Singh. He submitted that a day-to-day trial is rather the mandate for any Court of Sessions and that this court, being a designated court for trial of cases pertaining to MP/MLAs, must expedite proceedings in terms of the directions in Court on its own motion as well as the directions of the Supreme Court order of 09.11.2023 in another matter.
The court has already granted adequate time to cross-examine the Prosecution witnesses.
It was stated by the counsel for the accused persons that there are 18,000 documents and an order on charge running in around 250 pages. It requires time to study the same.
This case pertains to alleged corruption in the tender of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri during the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav as Railway Minister.
While framing of charges on October 13, the Rouse Avenue court had listed the matter for day-to-day hearing for recording the Prosecution evidence.
The court had framed charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejaswi Yadav and others in criminal Conspiracy and sections related to other offences in the IRCTC hotel corruption case.
"The essence of the submissions is that in view of the short time available between the framing of the charge and the commencement of evidence, the respective counsels would require adequate time to prepare for cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses," the court noted in the order of October 27.
This case pertains to allegations of corruption in allotment of maintenance work of IRCTC hotel tenders during the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav during 2004-2009.
It is alleged that the maintenance contract of two IRCTC hotels, namely BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri to Sujata Hotel, a private firm owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochar.
The CBI had alleged that in return for this deal, Lalu Prasad Yadav got three acres of prime land through some benami company.
On July 7, 2017, the CBI filed an FIR against Lalu. The agency also raided 12 locations linked to Lalu and his family members in Patna, New Delhi, Ranchi and Gurgaon. A charge sheet was filed in April 2018.
CBI had invoked section 120B read with 420 of IPC, section 13 (2) read with 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. (ANI)