Court grants partial relief to Lalu, others in IRCTC scam case

A Delhi Court on Tuesday granted partial relief to former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and others in the money laundering case relating to the IRCTC scam.

P.C. Gupta, his wife Sarla Gupta and other accused in the case had moved an application seeking deferment of hearing in the ED case till the arguments on charge in the CBI case are not complete.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj while disposing of the plea filed by firm M/S Lara Projects and some other accused in the case granted partial relief to them by preponing the CBI matter and posting both the matters for hearing on July 31.

Earlier, a Central Bureau of Investigation case was slated for August 31 for framing of charges.

"Although there is no bar to commence argments on charge in the complaint filed under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the Special Court has taken cognizance of the scheduled offence, the arguments on charge in the scheduled offence as well as for the offence under Section 4A of PMLA should be heard simultaneously," the judge said in his order.

The cases relates to alleged money laundering in grant of operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm. Both the CBI and the ED had registered cases against former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and others.
IANS