New Delhi, July 30: A Delhi Court on Monday has issued summons to Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and son Tejashwi Yadav. Summons have also been issued to Lalu Yadav's wife Rabri Devi and others as accused in alleged irregularities in granting operational contracts of two IRCTC- Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels to a private firm.

On July 27, a Special judge Arvind Kumar had fixed the date for pronouncing the order. The court did so after being told by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case on April 16 and said that there was enough evidence against Lalu Prasad Yadav, wife Rabri and son Tejashwi Yadav.

”Let me go through the documents. I will pronounce order on Monday,” the judge is reported to have said, according to news agency PTI.

The CBI had also told court that sanction had been procured from the authorities to prosecute the Additional Member of the Railway Board B.K. Agarwal. According to reports, Agarwal, was the then group general manager of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

Besides Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members, the other names involved in the case are those of former union minister Prem Chand Gupta, who was a former union minister, his wife Sarla Gupta, then MD of IRCTC PK Goyal, then IRCTC director Rakesh Sinha have also been named in the CBI  chargesheet.

Revisiting the history of the case, the chargesheet by CBI was filed in July 2017, and searches were held at 12 different locations involving cities Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Gurugram among others, in connection with the case. The chargesheet mentions that, then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, in his capacity, had helped the owner of Sujata hotels owner Sarla Gupta, and other IRCTC officials, providing "undue pecuniary advantage to himself and others." There are allegations of rigged tender process and manipulations to benefit Sujata Hotels.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2018 01:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).