Railway bribery case: trial to commence from September 15

A special court here today fixed September 15 for commencement of trial in the Rs 10-crore cash-for-post railway bribery case in which former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla and others, including a suspended Railway Board member, were chargesheeted by CBI.
Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma, who was scheduled to commence the trial from today, deferred it for September 15 as CBI's prosecutor was on leave.
Paving the way for the trial, the court had on March 11 framed charges against all the accused under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC read with provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal, who had resigned as Railway Minister after the case came to light, has been arraigned as a prosecution witness by CBI in the case.
The court had framed charges against Singla, then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Limited N R Manjunath, alleged middlemen Ajay Garg and Sandeep Goyal and co-accused Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C V Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan.
The court, while framing charges against the accused, had observed that they had prima facie entered into a criminal conspiracy to get Mahesh Kumar appointed as Member(Electrical) in the Railway Board and for that Singla was to be paid Rs 10 crore as illegal gratification.

It had observed that as per the records placed before it, Rs two crore was to be paid immediately and Kumar had instructed Manjunath to arrange the bribe of Rs two crore through other co-accused. CBI had filed a charge sheet on May 2 last year against the 10 accused.
The probe agency had alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from Kumar for his appointment to the post of Member (Electrical) and it was decided between the accused that Rs 5 crore will be paid before the appointment and the rest after the job was done.
It had claimed first tranche of around Rs 90 lakh was given to Singla who was apprehended while accepting the money.