Railway bribery scam: Court extends custody of 9 accused till 24 July

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday extended till 24 July the judicial custody of nine accused, including former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, who have been arrested in connection with the Rs 10 crore railway bribery case.Nine accused, including Singla and then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, were produced before the court after expiry of their judicial custody and Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma extended it till 24 July.

The court had earlier dismissed the bail pleas of these nine accused who were charge sheeted by the CBI.One of the accused, alleged middleman Ajay Garg, who has been accused of being instrumental in fixing the bribe amount for getting a favourable post for Kumar, was granted bail by the court on July 8.Besides Singla, Kumar and Garg, the other accused charge sheeted by the CBI are MD of Bangalore-based G G Tronics India Pvt Ltd Narayan Rao Manjunath, alleged middleman Sandeep Goyal, Rahul Yadav, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, M V Murali Krishan and C V Venugopal.Out of these 10 accused, Murali and Venugopal were not arrested by the CBI during the probe into the case but the court had yesterday sent them to judicial custody after dismissing their bail applications.CBI, in its charge sheet filed on July 2, has alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from Mahesh Kumar for his appointment as Member (Electrical).The agency had said it was decided between the accused that Rs five crore will be paid before the appointment and rest of the money will be paid after the job was done.The court on July 12 had dismissed the bail plea of seven accused in the case, saying they can tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses, if released on bail.All the 10 accused have been charge sheeted for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.PTI