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A Delhi court on Saturday extended till January 28 the interim bail granted to RJD chief Lalu Prasad in two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation scam cases.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj also extended the interim bail granted to Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in the cases till January 28. On the said date, the court will pronounce order on the regular bail application of Prasad and others in the ED case. The cases relate to alleged irregularities in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.
Seeking regular bail, Prasad, through his counsel, told the court he was not arrested during trial. “I appeared on summons and now there is no need of my custody because my custody was not sought when the probe was on. All documents are already seized and there is no vulnerable witness cited by ED,” he said. He also said he was 69 years old and unwell.
Yadav told the court he was in his teens when the alleged conspiracy started and he has no knowledge of what was going on. “ED is opposing for the sake of opposing. (There is) no allegation that we tried to hamper or influence the probe or tamper the evidence,” the accused said. ED opposed Prasad’s bail application, saying offence affecting the economy of the country as a whole and posing a serious threat to financial health of the country. “Just because we did not arrest the accused during the probe, it can’t be a ground for bail after he was summoned and appeared before the court. Bail is not automatic. Laundering was done through various persons and lawyers,” ED said, opposing the bail applications.
It added that names of employees were misused in laundering money that they are not even aware of. “They may try to tamper the evidence or influence the witnesses as some of them are their employees. They are still being examined,” ED said. All the accused are currently on interim bail in the money laundering case. The court reserved its order for 4pm on Prasad’s application for regular bail in the CBI case. He is currently on interim bail in the case.
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