Title - CBI lists Bansal as witness in railway bribery scam

Former Union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew Vijay Singla and nine others have been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Rs. 10 crore cash-for -post railway bribery case, has been named as a prosecution witness.

The agency has filed a list of 90 prosecution witnesses along with the charge sheet in a special CBI court in New Delhi and Bansal has been named as the 39th witness.

Singla along with Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar, MD of Bangalore-based GG Tronics India Private Limited Narayana Rao Manjunath, middlemen Ajay Garg and Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, CV Venugopal and MV Murali Krishan, have been chargesheeted by the agency in the case.

Barring Murali and Venugopal, CBI has arrested eight accused and all have been chargesheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Besides Bansal, the agency has also named ex-Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal, who retired from his post on July 1 this year, as a prosecution witness in the case.

Railway Board's Joint Secretary (confidential), P Rajeshkaran, and Joint Director Vigilance (Int), R Vijayan Nair, has also been named as witnesses by the CBI.

Besides them, several officials from various banks have been named as witnesses.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma today took cognisance of the CBI charge sheet and posted the matter for further proceedings on July 11. The court has also summoned Murali and Venugopal, who have not been arrested in the case, for July 11.