Lalu's co-accused moves HC for quashing order taking cognizance of charge sheet

New Delhi: A retired IRCTC official has moved the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of an order that took cognizance of a charge sheet filed against him in an IRCTC case in which RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav are also accused.

The petition filed by the then group general manager of IRCTC Vinod Kumar Asthana, in which he sought setting aside of the trial court order on the ground that no requisite sanction was taken to prosecute him, is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday. Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi and others, including Asthana, were summoned by the trial court on July 30, 2018 in the case related to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.

They were chargesheeted by the CBI on April 16 last year after the agency said there were enough evidence against them.

Asthana claimed in the plea that the trial court judge failed to appreciate that prima facie there was no evidence against him.

CBI had earlier told the trial court that sanction has been procured from authorities concerned to prosecute the accused, Additional Member of Railway Board B K Agarwal, who was then the group general manager of the IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation).

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

The other names in the charge sheet include then group general managers of IRCTC Asthana and R K Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.