Bribery row: Contractor sent to judicial custody

A Delhi court sent contractor Sushil Daga, one of the accused in the Rs 10-crore railway bribery case in which former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal`s nephew is among those arrested, to judicial custody till June 1.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday sent contractor Sushil Daga, one of the accused in the Rs 10-crore railway bribery case in which former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal`s nephew is among those arrested, to judicial custody till June 1.

Daga was produced before special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma after expiry of a two-day CBI custody and the agency said that he be remanded in judicial custody as probe into the case is going on. The agency had earlier 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 as Member (Electrical) of Railway Board. It had 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 had said that 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. Daga was arrested by CBI on May 19 after the court had on May 16 issued a non-bailable warrant against him as he was avoiding arrest since lodging of FIR in the case. Besides Daga, the other nine arrested accused - Singla, Mahesh Kumar, Manjunath, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Vivek Kumar, businessman Sandeep Goyal, Ajay Garg and Dharmender Kumar - are also in judicial custody till June 1. According to CBI, 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). The 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 once the job was done. PTI