IRCTC case: Judge charges Lala, 8 others with money laundering, quotes Tagore – What happened in Delhi court | Today’s news

A Delhi court ordered money laundering charges against former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and six others in an Enforcement Directorate case regarding the alleged IRCTC hotel scam.

Of the 16 accused, Special Judge Vishal Gogne acquitted seven and charged nine of them, news agencies reported on September 10.

By verbally pronouncing the essential parts of the order, the judge laid out strict standards for determining criminal intent, according to legal news websitest or mens rea (mental state to commit an offence) was not needed at the present stage and the court only had to ascertain whether there was strong suspicion against the accused.

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The court had already in October last year charged the RJD patriarch and 11 others with corruption in a CBI case in an alleged scam.

Justice Gogne said the nature, timing and course of the investigation did not indicate that the complaint was motivated by political vendetta against Lalu Prasad as alleged by his counsel.

“Some dubious deals are indeed closed in plain sight, with the public layer serving to mask rather than lure. The court would consciously note that special courts for CBI and PMLA matters, especially for MP and MLA cases, exist precisely to expose such disguised and circuitous Faustian deals that trade public trust and property for personal gain,” the court said.

What are the ED charges

The court said the ED charges, which spanned from 2005 to 2014, strongly suggested that under the leadership of Lalu Prasad, the then railway minister, the tender process for awarding the lease of radio hotels in Ranchi and Puli to Sujata Hotels was rigged by railway officials.

“The directors of Sujata Hotels, namely Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar, transferred their prime land in Patna to a company called DMCPL controlled by Prem Chand (PC) Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, close associates of Lalu Prasad, at undervalued prices,” the court said.

She stated that Sarla Gupta and others subsequently transferred the shares of this company to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav for a pittance.

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“The new entity controlling this practically free land is Lara Projects LLP. There is a strong suspicion that Lalu Prasad Yadav’s abuse of office generated proceeds of crime in the hands of his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who continued to enjoy this tainted land on a prized commercial avenue in Patna,” the court said.

It says the land in Patna is proceeds of crime and money laundering charges may be filed against Lara Projects, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad, PC Gupta, Sarla Gupta, Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar.

“However, the court did not find adequate grounds to charge Gaurav Gupta, Nath Mal Kakrania, Rahul Yadav, Vijay Tripathi, Deoki Nandan Tulshyan, Rajiv Kumar Relan and M/s Abhishek Finance Private Limited.”

“Nine accused are indicted, seven are acquitted. It is directed that the accused be charged under Section 3 (offense of money laundering) read with Section 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the PMLA,” the court said. She posted the matter on October 3 for formal charges.

I quote Rabindranath Tagore

Quoting Rabindranath Tagore before passing the order, the judge said: “Whenever power removes all obstacles from its path to facilitate its career, it triumphantly enters the final collapse of death, its moral fault is lost day by day without its knowledge, and its slippery path of ease becomes its path of destruction,” the judge said.

He said Tagore held the moral compass for India’s freedom movement and his words often lent cohesion in times of strife between freedom ballads.

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, author, playwright, musician, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter and one of the leading figures of the Bengal Renaissance. Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to receive the honor

The court said it had to determine “whether all checks from the path of power were really removed” by the former railway minister to paint a picture that the project was spotless.

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Whenever power removes all obstacles from its path to facilitate its career, it enters triumphantly into the final collapse of death.

Rejecting the arguments of the accused’s counsel that the prosecution was deprived of evidence, the court observed that there was strong suspicion due to the said witnesses and documents, including materials that would prove the sale of land in Patna, the incorporation of DMCPL, the loan of two crores given by Abhishek Finance to DMCPL, the repayment of the loan, including the increase in the share of reference shares in DMC, the change of 205 share in the reference shares of DPL by the directors and the transfer of shares to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi.