BJP protests outside CBI office in Chandigarh

Police had to use water cannons to disperse scores of BJP workers who clashed with police during a protest near the Central Bureau of Investigation office here on Monday.

Chandigarh: Police had to use water cannons to disperse scores of BJP workers who clashed with police during a protest near the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers were seeking the ouster of the CBI Chandigarh region chief Mahesh Aggarwal alleging that he had leaked information about the raids of the CBI`s Delhi team on former railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal`s nephew Vijay Singla in the railway bribery case. Aggarwal is a deputy inspector general (DIG) with the CBI here. BJP leader and former union minister Harmohan Dhawan alleged that Aggarwal, a relative of Bansal, had leaked the information about the raids to Singla`s family. He alleged that crucial evidence of the bribery scam was taken away by the family just before the CBI`s Delhi team raided Singla`s residence and office. Singla was arrested by the CBI earlier May after he allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs.90 lakh from a railways officer, Mahesh Kumar, to get him appointed as a member of the powerful Railway Board. Bansal was forced to resign as railways minister following Singla`s arrest. Dhawan alleged that Aggarwal had been posted at the CBI`s Chandigarh office since 2006 in contravention of rules, even after his promotion to a DIG. The "leakage" of the information about the raids has been put up in an affidavit to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here by CBI officer Inspector Balbir Singh. Singh approached the CAT against his transfer to Bhopal. He alleged that Aggarwal had also asked him not to name Rajeev Gupta, joint commissioner of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, in another bribery case. Rajeev Gupta is a relative of Sunil Gupta, Bansal`s chartered accountant. IANS