Railgate: Bansal's nephew denied bail

A Delhi court on Friday dismissed the bail plea of former Railway Minister P K Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, suspended Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar and five others in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery case.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma rejected the plea of the seven accused, who were arrested in May and have been remanded in judicial custody till July 19.

Besides Singla, the court rejected the bail plea of then member (staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Ltd Narayan Rao Manjunath, alleged middleman Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir and Sushil Daga.

During the day, the court also heard the arguments on the bail plea of accused M V Murali Krishan and C V Venugopal, who were charge-sheeted by the CBI but were not arrested during the probe, and fixed July 15 for pronouncement of order on their application.

They were named as accused in the charge sheet filed on July 2. 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.

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 five 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. Bansal was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet in the wake of the scandal.