New Delhi, Sep 10 A Delhi court on Thursday ordered framing of money laundering charges against former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and six others in the Enforcement Directorate's case regarding the alleged IRCTC hotel scam.
Out of 16 accused, Special Judge Vishal Gogne discharged seven and framed charges against nine.
Pronouncing the substantive portions of the order orally, the judge said the exacting standards of finding the criminal intent or mens rea (mental state to commit a crime) was not needed at the present stage and the court had to only see whether there is a strong suspicion against the accused.
The court has already framed charges of corruption against the RJD patriarch and 11 others last October year in the CBI case in the alleged scam.
Judge Gogne said the nature, timing, and course of investigation do not indicate the complaint to have been motivated by political vendetta against Lalu Prasad, as had been argued by his counsel.
"Some dubious deals are indeed cut in plain sight, with the public layer serving to camouflage rather than to pry. The court would mindfully observe that the special courts for CBI and PMLA matters, especially for MP and MLA cases, exist precisely to detect such masked and circuitous deals, which strike Faustian bargains to trade public trust and assets for personal gains," the court said.
It said the ED's allegations, spanning from 2005 to 2014, strongly indicate that, under the stewardship of Lalu Prasad, the then railways minister, a tender was manipulated by railway officials for the award of the lease of radio hotels at Ranchi and Puli to Sujata Hotels.
"As quid pro quo, the directors of Sujata Hotels, namely Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar, transferred their prime land at Patna to a company named DMCPL, which was controlled by Prem Chand (PC) Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, close associates of Lalu Prasad, at undervalued rates," the court said.
It said Sarla Gupta and others subsequently transferred the shares of this company to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav at a pittance.
"The new entity which controls this virtually free land is Lara Projects LLP. There exists a strong suspicion that the abuse of office by Lalu Prasad Yadav created the proceeds of crime in the hands of his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who continued to enjoy the use of this tainted land at a prized commercial avenue in Patna," the court said.
It said that the land at Patna is the proceeds of crime, and the charge of money laundering is liable to be framed against Lara Projects, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad, P C Gupta, Sarla Gupta, Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar.
"However, the court does not find adequate grounds to frame charges against accused 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 being charged; seven are discharged. It is directed that a charge be framed against the accused under section 3 (offence of money laundering) read with section 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the PMLA," the court said.
It posted the matter on October 3 for formal framing of charges.
Quoting Rabindranath Tagore before pronouncing the order, the judge said, "Whenever power removes all checks from its path to make its career easy, it triumphantly writes into its ultimate crash of death, its moral break becomes slacker every day, without its knowing it, and its slippery path of ease becomes its path of doom," the judge said.
He said Tagore held the moral compass for the Indian freedom movement and his words often bestowed cohesion in times of prevarication among the balladeers of freedom.
The court said it had to determine "whether all checks from the path of power were indeed unhinged" by the ex-railway minister to create a picture that the project was untainted.
Rejecting the arguments of the advocates of the accused that the charge sheet was bereft of evidence, the court noted that there was a strong suspicion because of the cited witnesses and documents, including material which would prove the sale of land at Patna, the incorporation of DMCPL, the loan of two crores given by Abhishek Finance to DMCPL, repayment of the loan, including raising of reference shares, change of shareholding pattern of DMCPL in 2005, status of various directors and the transfer of shares to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi.
