The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached ₹89.68 lakh in connection with an alleged bribery case involving a nephew of former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in 2013.
The money laundering probe is based on an FIR and chargesheet filed by the CBI against Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar, Mr. Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla, Sandeep Goyal and seven other accused.
“Mahesh Kumar, a 1975 batch officer of the Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers, was posted as General Manager, Western Railway. He wanted to get himself appointed as Member (Electrical), Railway Board instead of Member (Staff). For this, he was in touch with N. Manjunath, who was further in touch with Mr. Goyal, a friend of Mr. Singla,” said the agency.
It is alleged that Mr. Singla had demanded ₹10 crore through Mr. Goyal from Mr. Manjunath to get the job done. Acting on a tip-off, the CBI team raided the official premises of Mr. Singla in Chandigarh and seized the amount. “During the relevant time, Pawan Kumar Bansal was the Railway Minister and his nephew Vijay Singla was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹89.68 lakh,” the ED alleged.
The ED found that Mr. Manjunath — on behalf of the Railway official — was persuading various railway vendors, manufacturers and contractors to arrange the bribe amount, on the promise that they would be benefited from his posting.
The first instalment was allegedly given by Mr. Manjunath, M.V. Murli Krishna, Sushil Daga and Venketeshwara Rail Nirman. It was routed through the accounts of various entities and “hawala” agents and delivered to Mr. Singla in Chandigarh by the employees of Sushil Daga and Rahul Yadav, according to the Directorate.