Railgate: Bansal's nephew, 6 others sent to judicial custody

A Delhi court on Thursday extended till July 19 the judicial custody of suspended Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar and Vijay Singla, nephew of former railway minister P K Bansal, besides five others in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery case.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma extended the remand of the seven arrested accused after they were produced before it on expiry of their judicial custody. The court also issued fresh summons to accused M V Murali Krishan, who did not appear before it due to non-service of the earlier summons.

 Krishan and C V Venugopal, who appeared in court on Thursday in pursuance to its summons, were not arrested by the CBI during the investigation and they were named as accused in the charge-sheet filed on July 2. Venugopal also moved a bail plea.

The court sent Singla, Kumar, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G

Tronics India Pvt Ltd Narayan Rao Manjunath, middleman Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir and Sushil Daga in judicial custody till July 19.

Alleged middleman Ajay Garg, who has been accused of being instrumental in fixing the bribe amount for getting a favourable post for Kumar, was granted bail by the court on July 8.

The court has already reserved for Friday its order on the bail pleas of Singla, Manjunath, Goyal, Yadav, Daga and Sandhir. Arguments on Kumar's bail application will also be heard on Friday.

All the 10 accused have been charge sheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court had on July 4 taken cognisance of the CBI's charge-sheet in which the agency has alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from Kumar for his appointment to the post of member (electrical) and it was decided between the accused that Rs 5 crore will be paid before the appointment and the rest will be paid after the job was done.

The first tranche of Rs 89.68 lakh was allegedly given to Singla who was apprehended in Chandigarh while accepting the money, it has said.

Image: Former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal