Who is NR Manjunath, the moneybags behind the Rail bribe scandal?

While the focus of the Railway bribery scandal has been firmly fixed on the nephew of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Vijay Sangla, little is known about a manufacturer of electrical systems for the railways who decided to fund Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar’s ascension within the organisation for future contracts. Head of GG Tronics in Bangalore, Narayan Rao Manjunath is accused of being the person Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar reached out to when he was asked to cough up Rs two crore as payment for a transfer to a plum position of his choice. He’s presently in the custody of the CBI. [caption id=“attachment_758397” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is facing demands for his resignation. PTI[/caption] Kumar reportedly promised Manjunath lucrative deals to develop the railway electrical systems if he funded his transfer, and those who know the industrialist claim the US-returned electrical engineer’s fortunes had risen in tandem with favoured officials getting plum posts in the railways. The Bangalore Mirror in a profile of the god-fearing, pilgrimage attending industrialist, documents how Manjunath reportedly started with manufacturing small scale electrical products for signalling equipment but after coming up with a digital axle counter system his fortunes changed dramatically. Highlighting his rise, the Mirror reported:

It propelled Manjunath’s company’s growth — his small-scale industry grew into a major railway signalling research and development centre, employing around 500 people. He started getting orders from South Africa, Malaysia and other countries. He used to show his company’s balance sheets to his friends, but even they raised eyebrows at his phenomenal growth

However, the report also highlights how Manjunath while distancing himself from the political class was always in touch with top officials from the railways and his rise coincided with Mahesh Kumar becoming the Divisional Railway Manager of South Western Railway (Bangalore Division) in 2002. Read the complete Mirror report here