Railway scam: Trial begins, former railway minister Pawan Bansal to appear as witness on Tuesday

Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is likely to appear on Tuesday as a CBI witness in the Rs 10-crore cash-for-post railway bribery case in which a special court commenced trial on Monday.

A Congress leader, Bansal, who resigned as Railway Minister after the case came to light, has been arraigned as a prosecution witness by CBI in the case in which his nephew Vijay Singla along with others, including suspended Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar, are facing trial.

CBI court has sent the summons to Bansal to appear before it tomorrow for recording of his statement as a prosecution witness. Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma commenced the trial and recorded testimonies of two CBI witnesses in the case.

The court recorded statements of Vinay Mittal, the then Railway Board chairman and senior Railway ministry official Jagmohan Rawat, who had given sanction to prosecute accused Mahesh Kumar. Their testimonies remained inconclusive. CBI had chargesheeted 10 accused, including Vijay Singla and Mahesh Kumar, in the case last year.

Paving the way for the trial, the court had on March 11 this year framed charges against all the accused under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC read with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court had framed charges against Singla, then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, Managing Director of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Limited N R Manjunath, alleged middlemen Ajay Garg and Sandeep Goyal and co-accused Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, CV Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan.

The court, while framing charges against the accused, had observed that they had prima facie entered into a criminal conspiracy to get Mahesh Kumar appointed as Member(Electrical) in the Railway Board and for that Singla was to be paid Rs 10 crore as illegal gratification.