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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) now seems not to be in a hurry to question former railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in the posts-for-money scam.
Although officials had earlier indicated that he was to be questioned soon after the controversy became public, the agency now wants to scrutinise all the documents and taped conversations before quizzing the former minister.
CBI has sent the intercepted telephonic conversations for forensic analysis, as it is the main source of evidence. The probe is proceeding on the basis of the names and contracts mentioned in the taped talk. CBI had also got documents from the railways ministry on the contracts mentioned in the conversation between four of those arrested - Mahesh Kumar, who was member-staff, Railway Board; Vijay Singla, nephew and close aide of Bansal, and middlemen Narayan Rao Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal.
The agency will start probing other appointments in the Railway Board since 2009 only after it was close to completing the current inquiry, a senior official said. CBI has 90 days to file a chargesheet in this case. It has completed interrogating all the nine men arrested; they are in judicial custody till the next hearing on the coming Monday.
The case in this regard had been registered on May 3 against all the nine accused on charges of criminal conspiracy and bribery. Kumar is said to have agreed to obtain Rs 2 crore as illegal gratification from Manjunath and other businessmen dealing with the Railways to pay bribes to Singla's associates, in exchange for a posting in the electrical department. CBI is likely to add more charges and names to its list of accused.
Meanwhile, the agency has got Anil Kumar Sinha as its Special Director, succeeding V K Gupta as second in command. He is a 1979 batch Indian Police Service officer from the Bihar cadre, having come from a Central Vigilance Commission posting.
