The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached cash close to Rs 90 lakh belonging to former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached cash close to Rs 90 lakh belonging to former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla. The attachment, made under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is in connection with a case of alleged corruption.
The ED investigation is based on a CBI FIR against Mahesh Kumar, Member (staff), Railway Board; Vijay Singla; Sandeep Goyal and seven other accused.
According to the ED, the CBI probe revealed that Mahesh Kumar, a 1975-batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), was posted as general manager, Western Railways. He wanted to get himself appointed as Member (Electrical), Railway Board instead of Member (Staff), ED claimed.
“For this he was in touch with N Manjunath, who was further in touch with Sandeep Goyal, a friend of Vijay Singla. Vijay Singla demanded Rs 10 crore through Sandeep Goyal from N Manjunath to get Mahesh Kumar Posted as Member (Electrical). While delivering a token amount to Vijay Singla and Sandeep Goyal, the CBI team raided the premises of office of Vijay Singla at Sector 28, Chandigarh and recovered Rs 89,68,000. During the relevant time Pawan Kumar Bansal was the Railway Minister and his nephew Vijay Singla was caught red handed while accepting the bribe,” an ED statement said.
According to the ED, its probe revealed that Manjunath, on behalf of Mahesh Kumar, was persuading various “railway vendors/ S&T manufacturers/ contractors for making arrangement of bribe amount for promotion of Mahesh Kumar by alluring them that all the contributors would be taken care of/benefited from the desired posting of Mahesh Kumar”.
The ED probe also found that the first installment of the bribe amount was contributed by Manjunath, M V Murli Krishna, Sushil Daga and M/S Venketeshwara Rail Nirman Pvt Ltd.
“That Rs 50 Lacs were contributed by Manjunath himself, Rs 25 Lacs by M V Murli Krishan, Rs 5 lacs by Sushil Daga and Rs 10 Lacs from the account of M/s. Venketeshwara Rail Nirman Pvt. Ltd. by Rahul Yadav and Sushil Daga. The aforesaid amount was routed through the account of various companies/individuals and with assistance of Hawala agents. The amount Rs 89,68,000 was finally made available/arranged at Delhi in the form of cash and thereafter was delivered to Vijay Singla at his office in Sector 28, Chandigarh by the employees of Sushil Daga and Rahul Yadav of Delhi where CBI team caught them red handed,” the ED statement said.
