A Delhi court rejected Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi’s request to halt day-to-day hearings in the IRCTC scam case, citing Supreme Court orders for speedy trials of MPs and MLAs. The case involves alleged bribes of land and shares for hotel contracts during Yadav’s tenure as Railway Minister.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife, former CM Rabri Devi, against the order to conduct a day-to-day trial in the IRCTC scam case.
The couple, along with their son Tejashwi Yadav and others, have been charged with corruption, conspiracy, and cheating.
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The order was passed by Special Judge (PC Act) Vishal Gogne at Rouse Avenue Courts, who said that their request was not acceptable or justified.
The judge observed that the higher courts — the Constitutional courts — have clearly directed trial courts to speed up cases involving Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and to avoid unnecessary adjournments by recording evidence on a day-to-day basis.
In his order, the judge stated,
“The court is therefore disinclined to bind and restrict its future daily orders by introducing a negative direction inter alia ‘not listing the matter before one week after each hearing’, as prayed by the applicants.”
The case, filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), accuses Lalu Yadav and his family of accepting prime land and company shares as bribes in exchange for awarding contracts to a private firm while he was the Union Railway Minister.
According to the CBI, between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu Yadav held the railway portfolio, two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri were leased to a private company called Sujata Hotels through a manipulated tender process.
In return, land worth crores of rupees was allegedly transferred to a company linked to Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi Yadav at prices much below market value.
The Yadav family has consistently denied the allegations, maintaining that the case is politically motivated and that there is no evidence against them.
Earlier, on October 13, the court had framed criminal charges against Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, and several others. After the accused pleaded not guilty, the court ordered a day-to-day trial to ensure speedy proceedings.
Apart from the Yadav family, there are ten other accused in the case. Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi later filed an application seeking relief from the day-to-day trial schedule.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi, argued that the Yadav family is facing four criminal cases before the same court, all of which have been ordered to proceed daily.
He contended that it would be difficult for the same group of lawyers to manage all cases simultaneously.
Singh requested the court to postpone the trial for four weeks, citing the need for more time to study the 18,000-page chargesheet and the 250-page court order that framed the charges.
He submitted before the court,
“Your honour took four months to pass orders [on 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.”
Opposing the plea, CBI’s Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh referred to the Supreme Court’s directions and said that all criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs must be tried quickly and without delay.
With that, the court refused to modify its earlier order and upheld the day-to-day trial for the IRCTC scam case involving Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, and others.
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