New Delhi:
Former Railways Minister Pawan Bansal has been named by the CBI as a prosecution witness in the rail scam case. The CBI, which is probing the cash-for-post case in the rail ministry, had submitted its chargesheet, in which the CBI took cognizance on Thursday.
Western Railways General Manager Mahesh Kumar has been named as the main accused, while Mr Bansal's nephew, Vijay Singla, has also been charged with criminal conspiracy and bribing a government official.
Chargesheet alleges that Mr Kumar was allegedly bribing Mr Bansal's nephew for the coveted post of Member, Electrical, in the Rail board.
The chargesheet says that Mr Singla intended to use his personal influence to get Mr Kumar the post.
It also goes on to say that Sandeep Goyal, one of the accused, gave Mr Kumar the landline number of Mr Bansal's official residence to set up meetings to strike the deal.
However, the rest of the chargesheet is completely silent on the role of Mr Bansal in the case. The CBI says that there was no evidence which suggested that the former Railways Minister was aware of the bribe.
Political opponents say how can the minister be unaware when his personal phone line was being used. Questions are also being raised about the haste in which the CBI filed the chargesheet.
"The CBI gave a clean chit to Pawan Bansal is no surprise. The person in whose ministry such a scam took place. If he was not in the Congress party, who would have saved him," said BJP's Shahnawaz Hussein.
The CBI had sanction to intercept phone calls of eight mobile phones, belonging to the eight accused, to unravel the scam.
The chargesheet also mentions Mr Kumar had tried to entice Mr Goyal by offering him contracts related to fans and bio-toilets with the railways. Out of the Rs 89,68,000 that the CBI had seized from Mr Singla's residence during the payment, Rs 50 laks was through hawala channel.