IRCTC case: Court reserves order on framing of charges against Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on whether to frame charges against RJD president Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and others in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
Special judge Vishal Gogne reserved the order for July 23 after the arguments were concluded on the aspect of charge, while directing the accused persons to file a short synopsis of their arguments within one week.
"Limited submissions have been addressed by the counsel for the CBI in terms of the previous order. The arguments thus stand concluded on the aspect of charge. The accused persons who have not furnished written submissions are at liberty to file a short synopsis of their arguments comprising no more than six to eight pages within one week," judge Gogne said.
The judge said that since extensive arguments were advanced by the respective counsels for the 14 accused with reference to the voluminous record and the proceedings were stretched over several months even with day-to-day hearing in bulk dates, "the court shall require suitable time for pronouncing the order on charge".
Prasad, Devi and Yadav earlier refuted corruption and other charges levelled against them by the CBI in the case.
The charges include criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption that carry a maximum jail term of seven years.
The three claimed before the court through their lawyer that the CBI lacked evidence to prosecute them in the case.
Prasad, who was railway minister during the UPA-I government, had earlier questioned the validity of sanctions obtained by the CBI to prosecute him in the case.
The agency told the court on February 28 that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused persons in the case.
The case stems from alleged irregularities in the grant of operational contracts of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.
According to the CBI chargesheet, a conspiracy was hatched between 2004 and 2014 in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located in Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC. Later, they were leased to the Patna-based Sujata Hotels Private Limited for operations and maintenance.
The tender process, the agency alleged, was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party -- Sujata Hotels.
The chargesheet also names the then group general managers of IRCTC, V K Asthana and R K Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.
Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels have also been named as accused in the chargesheet.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
