The2013 railway bribe scam looked inspired by the Bollywood thrillers of late '70sand '80s in which the villains could be seen carrying one half of a rupee noteto match it with the other half as the modus operandi to receive and delivermoney. A similar tactic of matching the code numbers of Rs 10 currency notescould be seen in the bribery scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has foundin its investigation.
Therevelations has been made in the chargesheet filed by the financial probeagency earlier this year in a Special PMLA court against several people,including Vijay Singla, the nephew of then Railway Minister and senior Congressleader Pawan Kumar Bansal.
TheED has also named Mahesh Kumar, the then General Manager of Western Railway,and several other private players in the case.
Accordingto the statements of persons who witnessed the arrangement of bribe amount forMahesh Kumar, a 1975 batch officer of Indian Railway Service of SignalEngineers (IRSSE), for the post of Member (Electrical) in the railway board,which have been viewed by IANS, the Rs 10 note number played an important roleas it was the code for the amount meant for the alleged bribery for post ofMember (Electrical).
Thestatements were recorded by the ED in 2017 and 2018.
TheED had recorded the statement of Subhash Bhartia, who was managing a firm namedWind Trading of his friend's wife Minati Tufani, on January 10, 2019. In hisstatement, Bhartia claimed that he was known to Raghuvir Bhuwalka for the last10-15 years.
"OnMay 2, 2013, Bhuwalka called him and requested him for the arrangement of Rs 50lakh in cash in Delhi and also forwarded him a message in this regard andprovided the number of the person to whom this amount was to bedelivered," the ED said.
TheED said that Bhartia in his statement claimed that he contacted Mahaveer PrasadPareek of Delhi with the help of Shyamlal of Kolkata and Pareek agreed toarrange Rs 50 lakh in cash in Delhi.
"Bhartiastated that he forwarded the number of the Rs 10 note and contact number of theperson to whom the amount was to be delivered and added that he also confirmedthe delivery of the aforesaid amount to Bhuwalka," the ED said in itschargesheet.
EvenPareek in his statement to ED on December 27, 2018, claimed that Bhartia wasknown to him for the last 10-15 years being in the same profession.
Pareektold the ED that he received a message from Bhartia on May 2, 2013 that he wasin need of Rs 50 lakh in cash with him and agreed with the request of Bhartia.
TheED claimed that Pareek further disclosed that Bhartia provided him the"number of a Rs 10 note" and a mobile number of Rahul Yadav to whomthe payment was to be delivered.
Hefurther stated that he provided the "number of Rs 10 note" and mobilenumber of Rahul Yadav to his employee Likhma Ram Pareek and sent the amountthrough him, who made the delivery of the aforesaid amount at Chandni Chowk.
EvenLikhma Ram in his statement to the ED on January 10, 2019 claimed that on May2, 2013, Pareek gave him a bag containing Rs 50 lakh along with the number of aRs 10 note and contact number of the person to whom the amount was to bedelivered.
LikhmaRam told ED that he delivered Rs 50 lakh at Kuchha Mahajani in Chandni Chowk tothe concerted person on the instruction of Pareek.
LikhmaRam was an employee of Pareek between 2012 and 2015.
Meanwhile,Vijay Kumar Marwaha in his statement to the ED on April 13, 2018 stated that heused to work as accountant with Venkateshwara Rail Nirmana Limited, Solar LEDSolution and Blue Nile Inc from October 2012 to May 2013 and Rahul Yadav andSameer Sandhir were known to him through these companies.
Whenasked about the arrangement of any payment on behalf of Yadav and Sandhir to bepaid to Singla and others at Chandigarh, Marwaha stated that on the directionsof Yadav, he had filled two cheques for Rs 10 lakh and 2.5 lakh, respectively,for self withdrawal duly signed by Yadav along with a letter to the concernedbank for release of cash.
TheED said that when asked about Rs 50 lakh received from a "hawala operatorat Chandni Chowk", Marwaha said that he could not remember the exactdetails as he suffured from Type 2 diabetes, hyper tension and old age as hewas 66.
Marwahasubmitted that as far as he could remember, he visited Chandni Chowk withSandhir as accountant of their company and Sandhir made a call from his mobileand collected a bag.
TheED has filed a chargesheet in the railway bribe case in October this yearagainst Mahesh Kumar, Singla, N. Manjunath, Sandeep Goyal, Ajay Garg, Yadav,Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C.V. Venugopal, M.V. Murali Krishna and VenketeshwaraRail Nirman Pvt Ltd under different sections of the Prevention of Money(Laundering) Act (PMLA).
TheED has also demanded punishment for those named in the chargesheet andconfiscation of their assets. The ED case is based on the FIR and chargesheetfiled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Mahesh Kumar,Singla, Goyal and seven other accused persons.
TheCBI had caught Singla red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 89.68 lakh forthe favourable posting of Mahesh Kumar. The ED in July this year questionedBansal for several hours in Chandigarh in connection with the case.
InMay last year, the ED had attached the Rs 89 lakh amount which the CBI seizedfrom the office of Bansal's nephew Singla in 2013 in the corruption caserelated to appointments at top positions in the railways, when the Congressleader was the Union Railway Minister in the United Progressive Alliance-2regime.
Bansalhad to step down from his post after the controversy.
Singlademanded Rs 10 crore through Sandeep Goyal from N. Manjunath to get MaheshKumar posted as Member (Electrical), the ED had said, quoting the CBI probe.