Railway board official B.K. Aggarwal, who is in Vienna, was granted official leave on approval from chairman Ashwani Lohani.
New Delhi: Just a week after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) sanctioned prosecution of a senior Railway Board official named as a key conspirator in a corruption case involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad, ThePrint has learnt that he has left the country after being granted official leave to go abroad.
B.K. Aggarwal, the additional member of the Railway board, production unit, is reportedly in Vienna, Austria, on a personal visit, sources said. He was granted leave — from 20 July till 29 July — by member of Rolling Stock, Ravinder Gupta, on approval from Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani.
This despite government guidelines that individuals facing investigation or inquiry on serious charges who may try to evade apprehension by police authorities or facing inquiry, may not be permitted to leave the country.
When contacted, Lohani refused to comment on the issue.
Reports say that Union Minister Piyush Goyal had just two days ago granted sanction to prosecute Aggarwal.
Aggarwal is the main accused in the 2006 ‘hotels for-land’ scam, along with then Railways minister Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav and a few others. He was the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) group manager at the time.
The development comes as the CBI was waiting for the formalities related to the prosecution sanction to get completed. The investigating agency was to submit the sanction in a special court hearing the case for it to take cognisance of the chargesheet.
With Aggarwal out of the country, the process may now take longer.
A delay in getting the prosecution sanction had prevented the CBI special court from taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed in the case against 14 people.
“Usually, a person who has a serious case against him or even a department inquiry is not granted this leave as there is a scope that he may go missing. It is usually discouraged but again it depends on the concerned authority to grant or reject it. The discretion wholly lies with the sanctioning authority,” a DoPT official told ThePrint.
The case
The allegations are that Lalu as Railways minister, along with his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and Aggarwal, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC run hotels — in Ranchi and Puri — to Sujata Hotels, in return for a prime land of three acres in Patna through a benami company, Delight Marketing.
Sujata Hotels was owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar.
After the tender was given to Sujata Hotels, the ownership of Delight Marketing Company, earlier in the name of Sarla Gupta, was allegedly changed to the names of Rabri Devi and Tejashwi between 2010 and 2014.
According to CBI, on 25 February, 2005, the Kochhars reportedly sold the three acres to Delight Marketing for Rs 1.47 crore, allegedly way below the circle rates. In addition, the commercial plot was allegedly shown as agricultural land to evade stamp duty.
Once Lalu resigned as railway minister, shares of Delight Marketing were allegedly transferred from Sarla Gupta to Rabri and Tejashwi.
The CBI says the name of Delight Marketing was changed to LARA Projects and further to LARA Projects Limited Liability Partnership, whose authorised signatories are family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav.
“Between 2010 and 2014, Lalu’s family took over Delight Marketing, a shell company, for just Rs 64 lakh. The circle rate of the three-acre property was Rs 32.5 crore whereas the market rate was Rs 94 crore. Shares of Delight Marketing at a net worth of around Rs 32.5 crore, in form of real estate, was sold by the P.C. Gupta family to the Yadav family members for Rs 64 lakh,” a CBI officer alleged.
According to the CBI, P.C. Gupta and Sarla Gupta are close aides of Lalu who helped with the benami transactions. Gupta was initially not named in the FIR, his named was added at the investigation proceeded and his role became clear.
Another case of the ruling class which includes the Opposition for all their drama of ideological battles helping each other for their own good. Either this officer gets an Antiguan citizenship or would die mysteriously
And Lalu is cured of fistula!!!
The cage was open and the bird has flown.We take great pleasure at running after flying birds.
How much lucrative hotel business is that at a bribe amount of 32.5 Cr was given by the party who submitted tender for puri and Ranchi IRCTC HOTELS.
When was permission given and when the ifficer left is missing from story. Media publish delibrately incomplete reporrs