‘No evidence of Bansal's role in railway bribery scam': CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation Friday sought to justify its decision to make Pawan Kumar Bansal a witness in the alleged Rs.10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery scandal by saying that they had not found any evidence of the former railway minister's involvement in the case. A CBI official said Bansal was not present when suspended Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar and his nephew Vijay Singla met. The agency, which filed its chargesheet 2 July in a special CBI court, said they could not find any record of conversation between Bansal and Singla regarding Kumar's appointment for the post of Railway Board member (electrical). Filing formal charges the CBI had named Singla, Mahesh Kumar, alleged middlemen Sandeep Goyal, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, Ajay Garg and Rahul Yadav and businessman Manjunath and his aides P.V. Murali and Venugopal as the accused.