Railway bribery trial begins, Bansal to depose Tuesday

A court here Monday began recording the statements of prosecution witnesses in the Rs.10 crore railway bribery case against Vijay Singla, nephew of former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, and nine other accused.

Bansal is likely to testify as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) witness Tuesday. He was summoned as a witness in the case by the court Aug 25.

CBI Special Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma commenced the trial and recorded the statement of then railway board chairman Vinay Mittal, now a senior officer in Union Public Service Commission and Jagmohan Singh Rawat, the sanctioning authority.

The court in March had framed charges of criminal conspiracy under the Prevention of Corruption Act against all 10 accused in the case.

Besides Singla, the other accused in the "cash-for-post" case are suspended Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar, middlemen Sandeep Goyal, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, Ajay Garg, Rahul Yadav, businessman Manjunath and his aides M.V. Murli Krishan and Venugopal.

The probe agency filed a list of 90 prosecution witnesses along with the chargesheet and named Bansal as a witness in the case.

Bansal had resigned as railway minister after the scam was unravelled.

Manjunath and Goyal had helped Mahesh Kumar in arranging money to give bribe to Singla and were to get favours from Mahesh Kumar after his appointment as Railway Board member (electrical), the CBI said in its chargesheet.

Singla allegedly demanded Rs.10 crore and accepted a bribe of Rs.90 lakh from Mahesh Kumar in his office May 3, 2013, the CBI said.