Railgate: Court to decide bail plea of one of accused on Jul 8

A Delhi court will decide on July 8 the bail plea of one of the accused in the Rs 10-crore cash- for-post railway bribery case in which former Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been named as one of the key witnesses by CBI.

CBI has also termed Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla as the 'main person' whose influence was to be used for getting a Railway Board Member appointed to a post seen as 'lucrative'.

One of the 10 persons chargesheeted in the case, Ajay Garg, has sought bail on several grounds, including that the the intercepted conversations of the accused, which should have been kept secret, were leaked by the agency.

CBI has relied on the intercepted telephonic conversations between the accused to support its allegations that a conspiracy was hatched to get the then Member (Staff), Railway Board, Mahesh Kumar appointed as Member (Electrical).

Garg's counsel also contended that the CBI's chargesheet does not indicate that anything more will be filed in the case and added that the investigation is over and therefore his client can be granted bail.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma, however, said she needed to go through the intercepted conversations to see what was the role of Garg, who according to the CBI is one of the middlemen through whom the bribe amount was fixed, before she pronounces her order on July 8.

'Let me read the conversation and then I will pass the order. I will keep it for orders on Monday (July 8),' the judge said.

The CBI opposed Garg's bail plea saying that since the charge sheet has been filed, he knows who the witnesses are and there is an apprehension that he might try to influence them.

The agency also said that Garg is one of the conspirators in the case and has been accused of offences which are of a grave nature and hence he should not be granted bail.

Singla, the then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar and eight others have been chargesheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.