Title - Railway bribery case: Court takes cognisance of charge sheet

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today took cognisance of CBI's charge sheet filed against suspended Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar, Vijay Singla, nephew of former Railway Minister P k Bansal, and 8 others in the Rs 10 crores cash-for-post railway bribery case.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma took cognisance of the charge sheet and supplied the copies and documents annexed to the final report to the eight arrested accused.

CBI had filed charge sheet on May 2 against 10 accused -- then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, Singla, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Limited Manjunath Narain Rao, middlemen Ajay Garg and Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C V Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan.

Barring Murali and Venugopal, CBI has arrested the eight accused named in its charge sheet.

All the accused have been chargesheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI, in its charge sheet, has alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crores from Kumar for his appointment as Member (Electrical).

The agency said it was decided between the accused that Rs five crore will be paid before the appointment and the rest of the money will be paid after the job was done.

The first tranche of nearly Rs 90 lakhs was given to Singla who was apprehended while accepting the money, it said.

Detailing Singla's role, CBI said he had accepted a bribe of Rs 90 lakhs on May 3, this year in his office.

"He (Singla) is the Managing Director, M/s JTL Infra Ltd, Chandigarh and is the nephew (sister's son) of the then Minister of Railways Pawan Kumar Bansal.

"There is evidence that he accepted bribe of Rs 90 lakhs on May 3, 2013 in his office, which was the part payment of total bribe of Rs 10 crores for the alleged appointment of Kumar as Member (electrical)," the charge sheet said.