NEW DELHI, May 20: A Delhi court today allowed CBI to interrogate for two days Sushil Daga, one of the accused in the Rs 10-crore railway bribery case in which then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew is among those arrested.
Daga, who was arrested yesterday, was produced before the court and the agency sought his remand, saying it needs to confront him with documents and intercepted conversations of the accused.
Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma allowed the CBI’s plea and remanded Daga in the agency’s custody till May 22.
“Since accused (Daga) has been arrested yesterday itself, he needs to be confronted with documents and intercepted conversations. It is also to be ascertained as to from where the bribe amount had been arranged….I remand the accused to police custody for two days,” the judge said.
The agency told the court that Daga, a regular railway contractor, had allegedly arranged part of the bribe amount which was paid to Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla for the posting of co-accused and then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar’s posting as Member (Electrical) of Railway Board.
It also said that one of the accused Vivek Kumar, who had allegedly carried the bribe amount to Chandigarh and was caught red handed while handing it over to Singla, was Daga’s employee.
CBI said another accused Narain Rao Manjunath, Managing Director of GG Tronics India Pvt Ltd, was the manufacturer of equipments which were supplied to the railways and Daga and two other accused, Rahul Yadav and Sameer Sandhir, were railway contractors.
A non-bailable warrant was also issued against Daga by the court on May 16 as he was avoiding arrest since lodging of FIR in the case.
During the day’s proceedings, the court also extended the judicial custody of Singla and other eight arrested accused till June one.
Mahesh Kumar, Manjunath, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Vivek Kumar, businessman Sandeep Goyal, Ajay Garg and Dharmender Kumar were also produced before the court after expiry of their judicial custody and their remand was extended till June one.
The court had on May 18 dismissed the bail plea of Dharmender Kumar after CBI had contended that his release could adversely affect the probe which was at an initial stage.
Dharmender, along with Vivek Kumar, had allegedly delivered Rs 90 lakh, part of the Rs 10 crore bribe amount, to Singla in Chandigarh to get Mahesh Kumar appointed to the more lucrative post in the Railway Board as Member (Electrical), according to CBI.
CBI had said the first tranche of Rs 90 lakh was given to Singla who was apprehended while accepting the money.
The agency had said that it was decided between the accused that Rs five crore will be paid before the appointment and the rest of the money will be paid the job was done. (PTI)
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