CBI starts new probe against Railway Board member, Bansal's PS

CBI today registered two new preliminary enquiries against the private secretary of former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal and a Railway Board Member which are off-shoots of its probe in the Railway bribery scandal.
CBI sources said the agency has come to know that Kul Bhushan who is a Railway Board Member (Electrical) has allegedly favoured a private builder in awarding contract to develop a railway land.
They said Bhushan allegedly relaxed norms which helped the builder grab the contract worth several crores of rupees.
The sources said the agency came to know about these alleged favours during its probe in the Rs 10 crore Railway cash-for-posting scandal allegedly involving Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla and the then member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar.

They said during the questioning of the accused and scanning of files related to Bhushan, the agency came to know about the favours.
In the second preliminary enquiry, CBI claimed that Bansal's Private Secretary Rahul Bhandari allegedly used to infringe in the transfer and posting matters of the Railway Ministry apparently for monetary gains.

The sources said the agency had gathered the information during its ongoing probe in the bribery scandal that Bhandari was allegedly instrumental in influencing number of key postings and transfers in the Ministry.
They said Bhandari, a 1997-batch Punjab-cadre IAS officer, has been grilled about these instances during his examination by the agency which is likely to file charge sheet in connection with the Railway bribery scandal this month.

Bhandari and Bhushan did not respond to SMSes seeking their reaction on the development.