Railway bribery case: Court extends judicial custody of six accused

New Delhi: A Delhi court today extended till 31 August the judicial custody of six accused, including former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla, arrested in connection with the Rs 10-crore railway bribery case. The six accused were produced before Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma after expiry of their judicial custody and the court extended it till 31 August. [caption id=“attachment_1043761” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Besides Singla, then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, MD of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Ltd Narayan Rao Manjunath, alleged middlemen Sandeep Goyal, M V Murali Krishan and C V Venugopal were produced before the court today. Of the 10 accused who were chargesheeted by CBI in the case, four are at present out on bail. Accused Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir and Sushil Daga were granted bail by the court on August 12 on a personal bond of Rs five lakh with two sureties each of the like amount even though CBI had opposed it. Alleged middleman Ajay Garg, who has been accused of being instrumental in fixing the bribe amount for getting a lucrative post for Kumar, was granted bail by the court on 8 July. CBI, in its charge sheet filed on 2 July, has alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from Mahesh Kumar for his appointment as Member (Electrical). The probe agency has said it was decided between the accused that Rs five crore will be paid before the appointment and rest of the money will be paid after the job was done. The first tranche of Rs 89.68 lakh was given to Singla who was apprehended while accepting the money, it has said. All the 10 accused have been chargesheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Former Minister Bansal, who resigned from the Union Cabinet in the wake of the scandal, has been named as one of the key witnesses in the case while his nephew Singla has been termed as the “main person” whose influence was to be allegedly used for getting Kumar appointed to the post. PTI