Railgate: HC's no to early hearing of plea against P K Bansal

The Delhi High Court today refused to direct a lower court to expedite the hearing on a plea by an NGO seeking further probe into the alleged role of former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and others in the Rs 10- crore cash-for-post railway bribery case.

Bansal has been made a CBI witness in the case in which his nephew Vijay Singla and nine others are named as accused.

"The application of the petitioner (Social Progressive Society) is yet to be decided by the trial court which has fixed it for hearing and disposal on March 3," Justice Mukta Gupta said.

During the hearing, Jaivir Bains, counsel for the NGO, said its plea for a direction to CBI to probe further the alleged role of Bansal and his nephew Singla in the case has not been decided by the trial court so far and any further delay would make the plea "infructuous".

"The case of the petitioner is that CBI has not investigated the role of Pawan Kumar Bansal and has not formed an opinion as to his guilt or innocence in the charge sheet.

"CBI has not formed or expressed any opinion or investigated his role in any manner on the basis of which it could be plausibly concluded that they have conducted an investigation qua him," the plea said.

The plea, which is pending disposal in the lower court since November 30 last year, had alleged the telephone line of the then minister was used and CBI should have probed further.

The High Court, however, dismissed the plea seeking a direction to the lower court to expedite the hearing and the decision saying the application is yet to be decided.

CBI, which had filed the charge sheet in July last year, has made ten persons as accused and alleged Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, an accused in the case, for his appointment as Member (Electrical).