Railgate: Accused question CBI's move to make Bansal witness

Questioning CBI's decision to make former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal a witness in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery scam, the three arrested accused in the case today told a Delhi court that the person who should have been made an accused has been set free.

During arguments on the bail pleas of arrested accused Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir and Sushil Daga, their lawyer told the court that the CBI is "implicating" them and they were not involved in the "principal conspiracy" in the case.

"The day when you (CBI) made Mr Bansal as a witness in this case, this court should have discharged all the accused. In which direction the investigation is going on?
"They (CBI) are implicating these poor persons (Yadav, Sandhir and Daga) and the person who should have been made accused is set free," advocate S K Sharma told Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma who reserved the order on their bail plea for May 9.

The CBI, in its charge sheet filed on July 2 against 10 accused, including Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, has made the former Union Railway Minister as a prosecution witness.

During the hearing, the defence counsel argued that these three accused are in custody for over two months and they were not involved in the conspiracy for appointment of then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar, the key accused in the case, to the post of Member (Electrical).

The CBI, however, opposed their plea saying they were part of the entire conspiracy and would influence the prosecution witnesses if released on bail.

Meanwhile, the court asked the agency as to why the two chargesheeted accused, C V Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan, were not arrested during the probe while their alleged role was similar to that of Yadav, Sandir and Daga, who are custody for over two months.

"This is very disturbing that these three are arrested while two others (Venugopal and Krishan), who have allegedly played similar roles, are not arrested by the CBI. The other two should have been arrested by the CBI," the judge said.