NEW DELHI: A city court on Monday summoned RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav , his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and several others as "accused" in the case related to alleged irregularities in granting operational contract of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels to a private firm.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar directed them to appear on August 31. Besides Lalu Yadav and his family members, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, then IRCTC managing director P K Goyal and then IRCTC director Rakesh Saxena and then IRCTC group general manager B K Aggarwal were also named in the chargesheet.

The other names in the chargesheet include then IRCTC group general managers V K Asthana and R K Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel. Delight Marketing Company, presently known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels Pvt Ltd have also been named as "accused companies" in the chargesheet.

The CBI had earlier informed the court that sanction has been procured from the authorities concerned to prosecute additional member of Railway Board B K Aggarwal, who was then group general manager of IRCTC.

The agency had filed a chargesheet on April 16 against Lalu, his wife, Tejashwi and Aggarwal, who allegedly colluded to give Sujata Hotels the contract for maintaining two railway-owned hotels - BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri - in 2006. It has been alleged that the tender terms for the hotels' maintenance contract were tweaked at Lalu's behest in favour of Sujata Hotels.

In exchange, Vinay Kochhar of Sujata Hotels sold a three-acre plot in western Patna to Delight Marketing for Rs 1.47 crore which was way below the prevailing circle rate. The CBI has alleged that Delight Marketing was a benami company owned by Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Gupta, Lalu's aide who was corporate affairs minister in UPA.

