Title - Railway bribery scam: Have no financial links with nephew, says Bansal

A day after a judge questioned the clean chit given to former Railway Minister in connection with the railway bribery scandal, Pawan Kumar Bansal said that he had no financial links with his nephew Vijay Singla.“I had no linkages, and I still don’t have any financial linkages with my nephew,” Bansal told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview.“All that I can say is I’m not associated with this matter and I had no knowledge of it. Relation is there, you can’t deny that,” he said.Bansal has been under a cloud after the arrest of his nephew in connection with offering a Railway Board member a plum posting in return for cash. After resigning from his ministerial post, he was questioned by the CBI but was let off and made a prosecution witness.However, conversations recorded by the CBI of the various persons involved in the scandal had raised questions over whether Bansal was aware of his nephew’s actions.

Describing his interrogation, Bansal said, “The CBI held an in depth, detailed inquiry. They grilled me also for 7 hours, it was no joke. They played their mind games with me. It’s not that they just let me off. Seven hours is a long time to be questioned for anything.”

Bansal said that his actions proved his innocence, since he had proposed Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar to the post. The former minister said that the designation that Kumar was aspiring for was to remain vacant.

“None of you have ever tried to see that the post of Member (electrical) was slotted to be vacant for another year and 3 months,” he said.

He also said that he had resigned from his ministerial post because he thought it was necessary.