Title - Railway bribery scam: Pawan Bansal not named in CBI chargesheet

NEW DELHI: CBI hasn't chargesheeted former Cabinet minister Pawan Bansal in the alleged Rs 10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery scam, with sources in the agency saying that the investigation into his alleged role in the politically sensitive case was still underway.

The agency filed the chargesheeet in the Special CBI Court on Tuesday while meeting the 60-day timeline, whose breach which would have resulted in the arrested accused, including Bansal's nephew Vijay Singhla and suspended Railway Board member, being automatically released on bail.

Sources in the agency said that the probe into any role that Bansal might have played in the bribery scandal was still on, but acknowledged that the investigators were yet to find evidence that the former minister was in league with his nephew Singla who has been charged with demanding Rs 10 crore from Kumar for fixing his appointment as Member (Electrical) in the Board.

Bansal, who quit after the scam broke out and has been extensively questioned by the agency, maintains that Singla was acting independently and had bluffed Kumar into believing that he could arrange his posting as Member (Electrical).

There were doubts whether the CBI would be able to file the chargesheet within the stipulated two-month period because the agency has not received the sanction it needs from the railway ministry for Kumar's prosecution.

It filed the document after Special CBI Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma took the view that it could do so even in the absence of the sanction from the ministry. The Judge took the view that the issue of sanction would come into play at the time court took cognizance of the chargesheet. CBI is hopeful of getting the sanction anytime now.

The Special CBI Judge is likely to take up the case for consideration on Wednesday.

Besides Singla and Kumar, CBI has accused eight others for their involvement in the scam. They include railway contractors Sandeep Goyal and Narayan Rao Manjunath, who tried to arrange the bribe Singla has demanded in the hope that Kumar's appointment as Member (Electrical) would boost their business with railways. Two of Manjunath's aides — Murli and Venugopal — who did not feature in the FIR, are also named in the chargesheet.

Others who have been chargesheeted are middlemen Sushil Daga, Ajay Garg and Rahul Yadav.

The agency, however, has let off courier boys — Vivek Kumar and Dharmendra Kumar — who delivered the money to Singla. The investigators were satisfied with their explanation that they, being paid employees, were merely carrying out the task assigned to them by their employer, and had no idea of the bribery conspiracy.

CBI sources said they have been able to corroborate all the allegations levelled in the FIR registered by them and got enough evidence which points to the involvement of Kumar, Singla and other accused in the case.

In its FIR, CBI has alleged middleman Sandeep Goyal had promised Kumar to arrange the plum post of Member (Electrical) in the Railway Board in return for promised Rs 10 crore, the sources said. They said Goyal, who was in touch with Singla and another middleman Ajay Garg, was trying hard to get the post of Member (Electrical) for Kumar as several lucrative projects were in the pipeline.

In the meanwhile, Kumar was appointed as Member (Staff) in the Board which is not seen a coveted posting in railway power circles, they said. Following his appointment, Kumar allegedly approached Goyal for managing additional charge of General Manager, Western Railway and Signal and Telecommunication till he is appointed as Member (Electrical). For this arrangement, Goyal demanded Rs 2 crore as immediate payment.

CBI had alleged Kumar had approached Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Ltd Narayan Rao Manjunath and other businessmen and industrialists dealing with the railway work for making payment in return for the promised favours from him, the sources said.

Manjunath could only arrange Rs 90 lakh of the promised Rs 2 crore, which he passed on to Goyal and Singla through conduits arranged by his Delhi-based confidante.