New Delhi: The CBI yesterday sought to justify its decision to make Pawan Kumar Bansal a witness in the alleged Rs100m cash-for-post railway bribery scandal by saying that the agency had not found any evidence of the former railway minister’s involvement.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said Bansal was not present when suspended Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar met his nephew Vijay Singla.
The agency, which filed its charge sheet on July 2 in a special CBI court, said it could not find a record of any conversation between Bansal and Singla regarding Mahesh Kumar’s appointment to the post of Railway Board member (electrical).
“Mahesh Kumar had only met some ministers officially. There was no telephonic conversation (between them) and Kumar did not meet the ministers privately,” said a CBI official.
Mahesh Kumar met ministers on his own as he was losing faith in Singla’s ability to fix meetings with ministers.
The probe agency in its charge sheet has named 10 people as accused: Singla, Mahesh Kumar, alleged middlemen Sandeep Goyal, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, Ajay Garg, Rahul Yadav and businessman Manjunath and his aides P V Murali and Venugopal.
Barring Murali and Venugopal, the CBI has arrested all the accused named in the charge sheet.
IANS
