Lalu Prasad Yadav IRCTC money laundering charges delayed by Delhi court

Why the charges were delayed

A Delhi court on Saturday postponed the formal framing of money laundering charges against former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi Yadav in the IRCTC hotel case.

The delay, which pushes the proceedings to 30 October, was caused by a procedural roadblock left behind by the transfer of the previous judge handling the case.

Special Judge Prashant Kumar of the Rouse Avenue Courts was expected to formally frame the charges on Saturday. However, he found his hands tied by the specific wording of an order passed on 10 September by his predecessor, Special MP/MLA Judge Vishal Gogne.

Before his transfer to the Delhi High Court as registrar of vigilance on 22 September, Judge Gogne had ordered that his court would draft the formal charges and transmit them to the Rouse Avenue Court for the accused to enter their pleas. Because Judge Gogne was moved before he could draw up those documents, the case has entered a temporary legal limbo.

Judge Kumar observed that he could not formally frame the charges himself when the previous order explicitly directed that they be drawn up by Judge Gogne. Consequently, the court directed Manu Mishra, the advocate representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), to seek instructions on how the agency intends to proceed.

The allegations against the Yadav family

The case involves a total of 16 accused. In his 10 September order, Judge Gogne discharged seven people and directed that money laundering charges be framed against the remaining nine, including Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family.

At the time, the judge dismissed arguments from the defence that the case was a political vendetta, writing that there was a "strong suspicion" against the accused and that the timing and nature of the investigation did not suggest political motivation.

The allegations date back to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as railways minister between 2005 and 2014. The ED alleges that tenders to run IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri were rigged to favour Sujata Hotels, run by directors Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar.

In return, the Kochhars allegedly transferred prime land in Patna at highly undervalued rates to Delight Marketing Company, which was controlled by Prem Chand Gupta and Sarla Gupta, close associates of the Yadav family. The shares of this company were later transferred to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav for a nominal sum, and the firm was eventually renamed Lara Projects.

While the money laundering aspect of the case remains stalled, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s parallel corruption case has progressed further. The court framed corruption charges against the Rashtriya Janata Dal patriarch and 11 others in October last year.