IRCTC scam: Bail granted to Lalu's wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav
New Delhi, Oct 6 : A Delhi court Saturday granted bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav and others in an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) scam case lodged by the CBI.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj also granted interim bail till November 19 to Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and others in a money laundering case filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to the alleged scam.
The court also directed Prasad to be produced through video conference on November 19 in the cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED.
The court granted bail to Rabri and Tejashwi Yadav in the CBI case on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of a like amount.
However, the regular bail was not granted to the accused in the ED case after the agency sought time to file a reply to the bail applications.
The court had earlier granted interim bail to the accused, except Prasad, on August 31 till today in the case filed by the CBI after the agency had sought time to file a reply today.
Earlier, the court had summoned and asked Prasad's family and all others involved to appear before it. The case is related to alleged irregularities in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Prasad did not appear before the court on Friday as he is imprisoned in a Jharkhand jail on another charge.
The CBI, which had on April 16 filed the charge sheet in the case, had said there was enough evidence against Prasad, Rabri, Tejashwi and others.
Earlier, the CBI had informed the court that sanction has been procured from authorities concerned to prosecute Additional Member of Railway Board B K Agarwal, who was then the group general manager of the IRCTC.
Besides Lalu Prasad, and his family members, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta and 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 V K Asthana and R K Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.
Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Private Limited have also been named as accused companies in the charge sheet.
The CBI had registered a case in July last year and carried out searches at 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurgaon in connection with the case.
The charges in the case include criminal conspiracy (120-B), cheating (420) under IPC and corruption, the central probe agency had said.
The ED had filed a case based on the the CBI FIR.
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Ali Larijani, believed to be running Iran since the beginning of the war, is killed in a strike
Dubai, Mar 18 (AP): Ali Larijani, a top Iranian security official and a conservative force within Iran's theocracy, was killed in an Israeli strike, Iranian authorities confirmed Tuesday. He was 67.
Larijani was widely believed to be running the country following the killing of its supreme leader in U.S. and Israeli strikes late last month that sparked a widening war. Israel said earlier Tuesday that it had killed Larijani, but it was several hours before Iran confirmed his death.
He had been appointed to advise Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration and traveled to Oman to meet with mediators just two weeks before the war began. Like other top Iranian leaders, Larijani was under heavy U.S. sanctions and implicated in the violent repression of mass protests in January.
He was ineligible to become supreme leader after Khamenei's death because he is not a Shiite cleric. But he was widely expected to serve as a top adviser, and many believed he was running the country as U.S. and Israeli strikes have driven Iran's leadership underground. The Supreme National Security Council said his son Morteza Larijani was also killed.
ALSO READ: Iran says no response to US outreach for talks amid escalating conflict
A week ago, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER” if Tehran stopped oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, Larijani responded on X.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn't fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn't eliminate Iran,” he wrote. “Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
Larijani was born into one of Iran's most famous political families, which many media outlets have compared to the Kennedys in the United States. One brother, Sadeq, served as the head of Iran's judiciary, while another, Mohammad Javad, was a senior diplomat who closely advised the late Khamenei on foreign affairs.
Over the years, Larijani issued increasingly hard-line threats. In the 1990s, he served as Iran's culture minister, tightening censorship. He served as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, and most recently as head of the Supreme National Security Council.
He wrote at least six philosophy books, including three exploring the works of German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
