Delhi court grants bail to former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad in money laundering case

Delhi's Patiala House Court on Monday granted regular bail to former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and others in a money laundering case against them in IRCTC scam case.

However, Lalu Prasad will continue to stay in jail over the fodder scam cases against him.

The bail was granted on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety amount each.

The next date of hearing has been scheduled for February 11.

On being granted bail, Tejashwi Yadav said, "We are confident of getting justice. We trust the judiciary."

The IRCTC scam is a case related to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

The CBI, which on April 16, 2018, filed the charge sheet in the case, had said that there were enough evidence against the accused.

According to the charge sheet, between 2004 and 2014, a conspiracy was hatched in pursuance of which BNR hotels of Indian Railways, located at Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC and later, for its operations, maintenance and upkeep, it was given on lease to Sujata Hotel Private Limited, which is based in Patna.

It was alleged that the tender process was rigged and manipulated, and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party (Sujata Hotels).

Besides Lalu Prasad and his family members, former union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, Agarwal, then managing director of IRCTC PK Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena were also named in the charge sheet.