Railway bribery scam: Court grants bail to one accused

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to one of the alleged middlemen in the Rs 10-crore Railway bribery case while reserving its order on the bail plea of Vijay Singla, nephew of former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal. Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma granted bail to Ajay Garg, an alleged conduit who was instrumental in fixing the bribe amount for getting a favourable post for the then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar who is also an accused in the case. [caption id=“attachment_939349” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image for representation only. Reuters[/caption] While directing Garg to furnish a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of like amount, the judge in her order said that “at this stage it was not clear whether he would have benefitted in case accused Mahesh Kumar would have got the posting of his choice.” The court also said that he should not delay proceedings by filing frivolous applications or seeking unnecessary adjournments during the hearing, which may lead to cancellation of his bail and also directed him not to leave the country or influence the witnesses. Earlier during the day, the court heard the arguments on bail on behalf of Singla. Singla’s counsel said the alleged bribe money recovered by CBI was a part of a business transaction. He also submitted that CBI is relying on some intercepted conversations but since the same has been procured illegally, “recovery of money from me cannot be declared illegal gratification only on basis of the telephonic converation the permission to intercept which was itself obtained illegally”. CBI rebutted his argument saying the conversations have not been intercepted illegally. The court also heard the arguments on the bail plea of another alleged middleman Sandeep Goyal who said even Bansal has in his statement to CBI refused to identify him. Pawan Narang, arguing for Sandeep Goyal, said “how can I influence anyone or the minister or be a conduit when even the former Railway Minister has said that he does not know me. “If the prosecution witnesses do not identify me in their statements, why should I remain behind the bars”? He also said CBI has “failed” to show if any loss has been caused to the state exchequer and the entire charge sheet is silent on any pecuniary or other loss. While giving relief to Garg, the court noted that he was not present at the spot where the alleged bribe was being given and he had surrendered himself. On the intercepted conversation relied upon by CBI, the court said that “instead of ’talking’, Garg has ’listened to’ accused Sandeep Goyal and Vijay Singla and the conversation is largely in monosyllables.” The court will tomorrow pronounce order on the bail pleas of Singla, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir and Sushil Daga. CBI had filed its charge sheet against 10 accused – Garg, Kumar, Singla, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Limited Manjunath Narain Rao, Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C V Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan. PTI