NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file its response on a petition by former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav challenging a trial court order framing charges against him in a money laundering case related to the alleged IRCTC hotel scam.
Justice Sachin Datta issued notice to the ED, directing it file its response by December 3.
The judge was hearing Yadav’s petition challenging trial court's September 10 order, claiming that the court ordered to frame money laundering charges "merely because charges had been framed against me (Yadav) in the scheduled offence, despite it being a matter of record that I was never involved in any process or activity connected with the alleged proceeds of crime."
The ED case arises from the CBI's FIR, which has alleged that Yadav entered into a criminal conspiracy with the owner of Sujata Hotels, Sarla Gupta, wife of his close associate Prem Chand Gupta, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP in the Rajya Sabha, and IRCTC officials for "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others" between 2004 and 2014.
The petition contended that the trial court's order was “ex-facie perverse” and "unsustainable in law". It added that "Yadav was never summoned by the ED for the purpose of investigation, which reflected that he was never involved in activity connected with the alleged proceeds of crime."
The trial court on September 10 ordered framing of charges against Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and six others in the case. The trial court held that the ED's allegations, spanning from 2005 to 2014, "strongly indicated that, under the stewardship of Yadav, a tender was manipulated by railway officials for the award of the lease of radio hotels at Ranchi and Puli to Sujata Hotels."
The trial court had earlier framed charges of corruption against Lalu Prasad Yadav and 11 others in October last year in the CBI case related to the alleged scam.
