Court Frames Money Laundering Charge on Lalu, Kin

A special court in Delhi has sought to frame money laundering charges against former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in the IRCTC hotel scam case of the Enforcement Directorate. There are 16 accused, with nine receiving charges and seven discharged. The formal charge-framing will take place on October 3.

Court Ruling: The Family's Case is Strong Suspicion

A special court in Delhi on Wednesday directed the framing of money laundering charges against former Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi Yadav, former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, in the ongoing case of the alleged scam on the IRCTC hotel.

A total of 16 entities and individuals are facing charges of money laundering in the case, presided by Special Judge Vishal Gogne, who dismissed charges against seven entities and seven individuals.

The case relates to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) filed for leasing of two hotels by IRCTC. The court noted that there is a “strong suspicion” that abuse of office and proceeds of crime had been committed through “rigged tenders” and subsequent land transfer.

The Alleged Quid Pro Quo

The court has found that while Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railways Minister between 2004 and 2009, the railway tenders were allegedly being manipulated for rehabilitation leases on BNR hotels in Ranchi and Puri, for which Sujata Hotels was awarded a prime three-acre plot of land in Patna.

The court has explained the alleged chain of transactions in detail. The court said the prime land at Patna, once owned by the directors of Sujata Hotels, Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochhar, was handed to a company called DMCPL, which was held by Lalu Prasad's associates Prem Chand (PC) Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, at undervalued rates as “quid pro quo”, while the land was later transferred to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav through a Lara Projects LLP arrangement at nominal rates.

The judge explained the standard for evidence at this point in the trial. “It is not necessary that the accused had a criminal intent, known as mens rea, and the court had to ascertain only if there was a strong suspicion against the accused,” Judge Gogne said.

Defence of Political Vendetta Rejected

Lalu Prasad's counsel had claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated. The court was unimpressed. Judge Gogne said there was no evidence that the investigation was politically motivated against the RJD chief and that was the nature, timing and course of the investigation.

The alleged IRCTC arrangement has not been the first prosecutions to be faced by the family. The same CBI had already framed corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and 11 others in the case in October last year. That CBI case is one of an investigation that was opened in July 2017, which had established that CBI's money was allegedly channelled through a series of shell companies and property deals to buy assets at a discount.

Political Reaction

The Bharatiya Janata Party was upset by the ruling. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad called Lalu Prasad's intervention as Railways Minister to influence the tender process for the hotel maintenance contracts as "misuse of position".

In his response, Tejashwi Yadav cloaked the issue in political persecution rather than take a direct shot at the charges. “Till the BJP which is anti-constitution comes to a halt and till I am alive, we will go on struggling against it. It's a great feeling to fight storms, we have elected this path.” He posted it on a social media.

What Comes Next

The court has opted for further imputing formal charges against the nine accused, who include the individuals as well as the company Lara Projects LLP, on October 3 after the ruling on September 10, 2026. The case is now proceeding towards trial on the money laundering count, which runs concurrently with the corruption trial before the same court in the related CBI case.