RailEnquiry

NEW DELHI: The CBI has concluded that Narayan Rao Manjunath, one of the accused in the railway 'jobs-for-sale' scam, had arranged the bribe money on behalf of Mahesh Kumar because he was promised by the suspended railway board member that he would get all signaling-related work in the state-run transporter. Manjunath owns the Bangalore-based GG Tronics India Pvt Ltd, which manufactures signal and automation products for the railways.CBI sources said the director (signals) in the railway board reports to the member (electrical) and Manjunath stood to gain if Kumar was appointed to the latter post as was allegedly promised by former railway minister Pawan Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla. "The deal between Mahesh Kumar and Manjunath was that the latter's company would get all signals-related work in railways in lieu of the money delivery to Singla and Sandeep Goyal," a top CBI source said.

Manjunath contacted his business associates in Delhi and Faridabad - Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga and Rahul Yadav -- and arranged Rs 90 lakh. "On being asked by Kumar, Manjunath offered to arrange and pay Rs 1 crore to Sandeep Goyal as part of illegal gratification. Mahesh Kumar assured Manjunath that he would extend official favours in lieu of which Manjunath agreed to arrange and make payment of the bribe amount," the source said.

"Manjunath managed to arrange only an amount of Rs 90 lakh, which was to be paid to Goyal on May 3, 2013 in Chandigarh on behalf of Kumar. Rahul Yadav of Lajpat Nagar, Samir Sandhir of East of Kailash and Sushil Daga of Faridabad, in conspiracy with Mahesh Kumar, Manjunath and others, arranged to deliver the bribe amount of Rs 90 lakh. The remaining amount was to be arranged by Mahesh Kumar after three-four days," he added. The remaining amount, the source said, was to be arranged by Manjunath himself.

CBI sources said Sushil Daga, who is on the run, would be arrested soon as they had traced his location, while the other accused are already behind bars.

Meanwhile, the CBI is analyzing thousands of railway board documents related to appointments/postings/transfers and has asked the ministry to provide files related to a few specific contracts which Singla and the other accused were discussing in recorded conversations.

Sources said they might record the statement of railway board chairman Vinay Mittal.