India, Sept. 12 -- A Delhi special court has ordered money-laundering charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and their son Tejashwi Yadav in the IRCTC hotels case. The court said there is "strong suspicion" that a railway contract was traded for a valuable plot in Patna and that the family still benefits from it.

The special judge, Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Courts, ordered that formal charges under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) be brought against the nine persons accused. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) discharged seven of the others named, and it will read the formal charges on October 3.

The accusations date back to when Lalu Yadav was Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009...