CBI files charge sheet in railway bribery scam

Delay in filing charge sheet would have meant bail for the 10 accused

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raced to file the chargesheet in the railway bribe for post scam on Tuesday just before the deadline was to end. Former rail minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has not been named in the chargesheet.

Till Monday, CBI had not received the required sanctions and was doubtful of meeting the July 2 deadline for filing the chargesheet. However, CBI on Tuesday cited an earlier Supreme Court case filed as a precedent and filed the chargesheet without the sanctions to prosecute Mahesh Kumar, a key accused in the alleged scam and rail board member.

The agency has been assured by the rail ministry that it will furnish the required documents by tomorrow.

Had the CBI missed the deadline, it would have meant bail for all the accused. The CBI has named 10 accused in the chargesheet, including Kumar and Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla featuring as the key conspirators.

In the chargesheet, the investigating agency has also named Singla’s close aides Sandeep Goyal, Ajay Garg, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga and Narayan Rao Manjunath, managing director of GG Tronics India. Two new accused -- P V Murali and Venugopal -- have been added in this list as aides of Manjunath.

The CBI has not named the couriers – Vivek Kumar and Dharmendra Kumar, aides of Singla’s conduit Yadav -- in the chargesheet. They will now be presented in the court as prosecution witness. The chargesheet was filed in the special CBI court in the evening, after securing all the required paperwork from the rail ministry. The matter has been scheduled for consideration on Wednesday in the special court.

In line with its first information report filed on May 3, the CBI chargesheet has alleged that Kumar had agreed to obtain Rs 2 crore as illegal gratification from Manjunath and other businessmen dealing with the Railways. The CBI says Kumar paid this money as bribe to Singla’s associates in exchange of his posting in the electrical department.

The charges pressed by the CBI against the accused are of cheating, criminal conspiracy, and criminal misconduct, which entail a maximum punishment of seven years in jail. The accused continue to be in judicial custody.

The CBI has also started a fresh inquiry against Rahul Bhandari, personal secretary to Bansal, for allegedly trying to influence postings and Kulbhushan, member (electrical) of the Railway Board, for giving undue favours to a private construction company. Supplementary chargesheets in the matter could follow, since the two preliminary enquiries are still in progress.