The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet in police parlance) under Prevention of Money Laundering Act against 10 individuals and one entity in the infamous railway bribery case.
The PMLA case was an outcome of a CBI case in which then railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla was caught red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 89,68,000 for favourable appointment and posting of Mahesh Kumar, a 1975 batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) as Member (Electrical), Railway Board.
Those named in the prosecution complaint are Mahesh Kumar (former officer of Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers), N Manjunath, Sandeep Goyal, Vijay Singla, Ajay Garg, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, CV Venugopal and MV Murali Krishna besides private firm Venkateshwara Rail Nirman Pvt. Ltd.. The prosecution complaint was filed before the Special Court (PMLA) at Chandigarh in the Railway Bribery case.
“The Prosecution Complaint has been filed with a prayer to punish the accused in accordance with the law and to confiscate the asset attached under PMLA,” the ED said in a statement.
The ED had initiated investigation under the provisions of PMLA on the basis of CBI’s FIR and chargesheet filed before Special judge (SPE/ CBI cases) Patiala House Court, New Delhi against Mahesh Kumar (Member (Staff), Railway Board),Vijay Singla, Sandeep Goyal and seven other accused persons under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“During the course of investigations under PMLA, it was revealed that N Manjunath, on behalf of Mahesh Kumar, had persuaded various Railway vendors/S&T manufactures/ contractors for making arrangement of bribe amount for promotion of Mahesh Kumar as Member (Electrical) by alluring them that all the contributors will be taken care of/benefited from the desired posting of Mahesh Kumar,” the ED said.
Investigation further revealed that the first instalment of bribe amount of Rs 89,68,000 was contributed by N Manjunath, MV Murli Krishna, Sushil Daga and Venketeshwara Rail Nirman Pvt. Ltd. Of this, Rs 50 Lakh were contributed by Manjunath himself, Rs 25 Lakh by MV Murali Krishan, Rs 5 lakh by Sushil Daga and Rs 10 Lakh from the account of Venkteshwara Rail Nirman Pvt. Ltd. by Rahul Yadav and Sushil Daga.