Title - Chairman Railway Board quizzed by CBI in Railway Bribery case

CBI has recorded the statement of Chairman Railway Board Vinay Mittal in connection with the alleged bribery scandal involving former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla and the then Board Member Mahesh Kumar. CBI sources said Mittal was examined for nearly three hours yesterday evening where he was asked about promotion of Mahesh Kumar from General Manager (West) to the Board and also about allowing him to retain additional charge of Western Railway even after his elevation. The sources said Mittal is not an accused in the case registered by the agency on May 3 this year in which Singla and Kumar are the main accused. Bansal had to resign as Union Railway Minister early this month after his nephew and a few other persons were arrested by CBI in a case involving alleged payment of bribe for fixing a top level Railway Board position. The case relates to reported aspirations of Kumar for his elevation as Member (Electrical) in the Railway Board for which he allegedly contacted Goyal, a close associate of Singla. Goyal allegedly demanded Rs 10 crore for it.

Kumar was in between elevated from GM (West) to Member (Staff) in Railway Board, a post which he was apparently not very interested in. He then allegedly asked Goyal to help him retain the additional charge of GM (West) for which the middleman demanded Rs two crore as immediate payment.

The agency alleged that a part payment of Rs 90 lakh was delivered to Singla after which it carried out searches at their premises and recovered the bribe amount.

CBI has so far arrested eight accused in the case.