A Delhi court on Monday (October 13) framed charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy, and cheating against RJD president and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad in connection with the alleged IRCTC scam, which is being investigated by the CBI. Charges were also framed against Lalu’s wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi Yadav, for offences of conspiracy and cheating.Bihar will vote for a new Assembly in two phases on November 6 and 11, less than a month from now. The RJD leads the Mahagathbandhan against the NDA alliance, and Tejashwi is the Opposition’s candidate for Chief Minister.The alleged IRCTC scamLalu, who was Minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009, has been accused by the CBI of allegedly favouring a private company in the award of operation and maintenance contracts for two IRCTC hotels in return for prime land in Patna. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways.According to the CBI’s case, there were irregularities in tenders awarded to a private company, Sujata Hotels, for the development, maintenance, and operation of two IRCTC hotels, BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri. BNR, or Bengal Nagpur Railway, was the predecessor of today’s South Eastern Railway, which is headquartered in Kolkata.The CBI registered an FIR in 2017, and submitted a chargesheet against Lalu, Rabri, and Tejashwi the following year. All three accused have pleaded not guilty. Day-to-day trial will begin on October 27.While ordering the framing of charges, Special Judge Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Court said: “Lalu Prasad prima facie intervened and that too through oral instructions on two occasions…to influence the pace and process of transfer of the…BNR Hotels…“What elevates the suspicion to the grade of grave suspicion is that the land and share transactions were possibly an instance of crony capitalism fostered in the garb of eliciting private participation in the Railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri whereby the commercial players ingratiate themselves to the then Minister of Railways (Lalu) by transferring their prime land at Patna to his wife and son through the acolytes of the Minister.”Story continues below this adMaterial modifications were made in the tender process, specifically with respect to the star classification criteria and evaluation of the competing bids for these two hotels, which caused a loss to the exchequer, the court said.Other cases against Lalu PrasadBesides the alleged IRCTC case, Lalu is an accused in two other alleged scams – the almost Rs 1,000 crore fodder scam that was revealed in the mid-1990s and forced him to resign as Chief Minister, and the so-called ‘land for jobs scam’, in which the CBI registered an FIR in May 2022.FODDER SCAM:On January 27, 1996, a raid on the offices of the Animal Husbandry Department (of undivided Bihar) in Chaibasa (now in Jharkhand) unearthed an alleged scam pertaining to the large-scale embezzlement of government treasury funds that were given to non-existent companies for the purchase and supply of cattle fodder in the state.According to the CBI, which was investigating the case, the Animal Husbandry Department had made fraudulent withdrawals of around Rs 1,000 crore during Lalu’s tenure as Chief Minister.Story continues below this adThe RJD chief was first convicted in a fodder scam case in 2013, and was awarded five years in jail. The conviction barred him from contesting elections for 11 years. He was later granted bail in the case.In the second case, Lalu was convicted by a special CBI court on December 23, 2017 for the illegal withdrawal of more than Rs 80 lakh from Deoghar (Jharkhand) treasury, and was awarded three-and-half years’ imprisonment.He was convicted in a third case on January 24, 2018, which was related to fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 33.67 crore from the Chaibasa treasury, and was awarded a five-year jail term.In the fourth case, pertaining to the alleged illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumka (Jharkhand) treasury, he was awarded seven years’ imprisonment on March 4, 2018.Story continues below this adIn February 2022, Lalu was convicted in relation to the Rs 139.35 crore Doranda (Jharkhand) treasury embezzlement case. He is currently out on bail in all five cases, mainly on the ground that he has already served half of his sentence.Under Section 436A of the CrPC, 1973 – the corresponding section in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, is 479(1) – a person who has, “during the period of investigation, inquiry or trial…under any law (not being an offence for which the punishment of death has been specified as one of the punishments under that law) undergone detention for a period extending up to one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence…, he shall be released by the Court on his personal bond with or without sureties”.LAND FOR JOBS ‘SCAM’:The alleged land for jobs scam pertains to the alleged transfer of land at cheap rates to Lalu and his family in return for appointments to Group-D substitute jobs in the Central Railway between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the Minister for Railways.The CBI and Directorate of Enforcement (ED) are investigating the corruption and money laundering aspects of the alleged scam respectively.Story continues below this adThe CBI’s case pertains to Lalu having allegedly influenced railway officers to appoint “the owners and family members of owners of the land parcels wherein he was having interest”.“As a quid pro-quo, the candidates (for Railway group D jobs) directly or through their relatives/ family members, sold land to Lalu Prasad Yadav at highly discounted rates up to 1/4th to 1/5th of the prevailing market rates,” the CBI said in its chargesheet.The agency alleged that Lalu’s family acquired more than 1 lakh sq ft of land for only Rs 26 lakh, as against the circle rate of more than Rs 4.39 crore. It has claimed to have found discrepancies in the documents supplied by those who were given jobs, such as sequential roll numbers on their caste and residence certificates.The ED, which is investigating the money laundering case, has alleged that a company called A K Infosystems was incorporated solely to buy land parcels from job seekers.Story continues below this adAccording to the ED, an accused named Amit Katyal, “in connivance with Lalu hatched a conspiracy” to incorporate a company in Delhi to buy land parcels in Bihar from prospective job seekers. The ED has alleged that Rabri Devi was a beneficiary of the proceeds of crime, and that through a shell company, she helped in transferring funds to Tejashwi, which were allegedly used in the construction of a property in Delhi’s New Friends Colony.The ED has also alleged that after these lands were acquired, the shares of A K Infosystems were transferred to members of Lalu’s family in 2014 for just Rs 1 lakh, even though the company allegedly owned land worth Rs 1.77 crore.