Railgate: Defence counsel slams CBI’s move to spare Bansal

Counsel for the three accused arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Rs10-crore ''cash-for-post'' railway bribery scam has questioned the investigating agency's decision to make former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal a witness instead of making him the accused.

The CBI is ''implicating'' those who were not involved in the ''principal conspiracy'' in the case, while making the real culprit in the case a witness, counsel for accused Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir and Sushil Daga said during arguments on their bail pleas in a Delhi court.

''The day when you (CBI) made Mr Bansal as a witness in this case, this court should have discharged all the accused. In which direction the investigation is going on?'' the counsel asked.

''They (CBI) are implicating these poor persons (Yadav, Sandhir and Daga) and the person who should have been made accused is set free,'' advocate S K Sharma told Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma.

The case involves a deal involving payment of Rs10 crore for appointment of then member (staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, the key accused in the case, to the post of Member (Electrical).

The court reserved the order on their bail plea for 9 May.

The CBI had on 2 July filed charges against 10 accused, including Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, in the Rs10-crore railway scam involving payment for promotions and postings. But the agency has opted to make former railway minister Bansal a prosecution witness.

CBI had filed charges against former member (staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, Vijay Singla, managing director of Bangalore-based GG Tronics India Pvt Limited Manjunath Narain Rao, middlemen Garg and Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, CV Venugopal and MV Murali Krishan.

The last two, CV Venugopal and MV Murali Krishan. However, are yet to be arrested.

Defence counsel pointed out that three of the accused as middlemen are in custody for over two months although they were not involved in the conspiracy.

Also, the counsel said two other accused as middlemen are allowed to move freely while three hapless persons were arrested.

The CBI, however, opposed their plea saying they were part of the entire conspiracy and would influence the prosecution witnesses if released on bail.

The court, however, asked the agency as to why the two other accused, CV Venugopal and MV Murali Krishan, were not arrested.

''This is very disturbing that these three are arrested while two others, who have allegedly played similar roles, are not arrested by the CBI. The other two should have been arrested by the CBI,'' the judge said.

Refuting CBI claims that a part of the alleged bribe amount was procured by the accused through hawala transactions, the defence counsel said his clients have not contributed their personal money in the alleged bribe amount.

CBI also had no proof to substantiate its charge.

The court, which yesterday heard arguments on the bail plea of another co-accused Ajay Garg, had also reserved its order for 8 July.

The scam came to light when Singla was apprehended in Chandigarh while accepting the first tranche of Rs89.68 lakh of the Rs10-crore deal.