Business Standard

Railway bribery scandal: CBI sends phone intercepts to CFSL

Image

Press Trust of India New Delhi
CBI has sent intercepted phone conversations to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory to identify the voices of suspects in the Rs 10 crore railway bribery scandal which saw the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Bansal.

CBI sources said the agency has sought the opinion of CFSL to identify the persons who are part of conversations intercepted by the agency in its surveillance project spanning over two months in which over 1000 phone calls were tapped.

The sources said the agency wants to use these intercepts to further its investigation into the cash-for-post scam in which the nephew of Bansal, Vijay Singla, and suspended Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar were arrested.
 

Some of these tapped conversations were used by the agency to seek the remand of the accused arrested in connection with the bribery scandal.

CBI has identified for closer scrutiny 500 phone calls from out of the 1,000 intercepted calls mainly among the four arrested accused.

The sources said these calls were among four key players in the scandal--Kumar, Singla and middlemen Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal.

The sources said a discussion on the transfer of the Railway Board member in specific terms could not be traced so far in the intercepts of phone calls between Singla and Kumar.

However, there were calls in which Singla is purported to be assuring Kumar that the work would be done. Kumar was allegedly assured that he will get the lucrative post of Member (Electrical) in return for "pecuniary gratification.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: May 11 2013 | 7:55 PM IST

Explore News