The Enforcement Directorate has attached cash worth Rs 89.68 lakh in a money laundering case involving Vijay Singla, nephew of Congress leader and former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
ED initiated investigation under the provisions of PMLA on the basis of FIR and chargesheet filed by CBI under IPC section relating to criminal conspiracy and for provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI had chargesheeted Mahesh Kumar Member (Staff), Railway Board, Vijay Singla, Sandeep Goyal and seven other accused persons.
CBI investigation 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). 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 period, Pawan Kumar Bansal was the Railway Minister and his nephew Vijay Singla was caught red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 89,68,000, the ED said in a statement.
ED probe revealed that N. Manjunath on behalf of Mahesh Kumar was persuading 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 would be taken care of/benefited from the desired posting of Mahesh Kumar, the agency said.
Investigation further revealed that first installment of bribe amount of Rs 89,68,000 was contributed by N Manjunath, MV Murli Krishna, Sushil Daga and private firm Venketeshwara Rail Nirman Pvt. Ltd.