ED files charge sheet against Singla, others in Railway bribery case

Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet against former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla and many others in the Railway bribery case under the sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. ED has also demanded strict punishment for the accused and confiscation of their assets.

New Delhi:The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against Mahesh Kumar, then Member Staff of the Railway Board and Vijay Singla, nephew of then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, besides several Railway officials in the Railway bribery case, officials said on Tuesday.

An ED official said that the agency has filed a charge sheet against Kumar, Singla, N. Manjunath, Sandeep Goyal, Ajay Garg, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C.V. Venugopal, M.V. Murali Krishna and Venkateshwara Rail Nirman Private Limited under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The charge sheet was filed in a special PMLA court in Chandigarh, a release said on Tuesday. The ED has also demanded punishment for those named in the charge sheet and confiscation of their assets.

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The ED case is based on the FIR and charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Kumar, Singla, Goyal and seven other accused people.

The CBI had arrested Bansal's nephew Singla red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 89.68 lakh for the favourable posting of Kumar, a 1975 batch officer of the Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) as Member (Electrical in Railway Board.

"During the investigation, it was revealed that Manjunath on behalf of Kumar had persuaded various Railway vendors/S&T manufactures/contractors for arranging bribe amount for promotion of Kumar as Member (Electrical) by alluring them that all the contributors will be taken care of/benefited from the desired posting of Kumar," the official said.

It was also found that for the favourable posting of Kumar, the first instalment of the bribe amount of Rs 89.68 lakh was contributed by Manjunath, Krishna, Daga and Venkateshwara Rail Nirman Private Limited.

The officer said that Rs 50 lakh was contributed by Manjunath himself, Rs 25 lakh by Krishna, Rs 5 lakh by Daga and Rs 10 lakh from the account of Venkateshwara Rail Nirman Private Limited by Rahul Yadav and Daga.

"The said amount was routed through the account of various companies or individuals and with the assistance of hawala agents," the officer said, adding: "The amount Rs 89.68 lakh was finally made available at Delhi in the form of cash which was delivered to Singla at his office in Sector 28, Chandigarh by the employees of Daga and Yadav of Delhi."

The ED in July this year questioned Bansal for several hours in Chandigarh in connection with the case.

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In May last year, the ED had attached the Rs 89 lakh amount which the CBI seized from the office of Bansal's nephew Singla in 2013 in the corruption case related to appointments at top positions in the Railways when the Congress leader was the Union Railway Minister in the United Progressive Alliance-2 regime.

Bansal had to step down from the post after the controversy.

"Singla demanded Rs 10 crore through Sandeep Goyal from N Manjunath to get Mahesh Kumar posted as Member (Electrical)," the ED had said, quoting the CBI probe.

IANS report