Railway bribery case: Alleged middleman arrested

New Delhi, May 8: Ajay Garg, a close aide of Union Railway Minister P K Bansal's nephew and an alleged middleman in the Rs 10 crore bribery case, was on May 7 arrested after he surrendered before a Delhi court, which remanded him in CBI custody till May 9.

Special CBI Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma allowed the custodial interrogation of Garg who surrendered before the court after "coming to know through media reports that the CBI is searching for him in the alleged bribery case."

Panchkula resident and a close aide of Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, Garg said in his application that "through media reports I came to know that I have been named as an accused in the alleged bribery case. I am voluntarily surrendering myself in the court to cooperate with the CBI in the ongoing investigation."

After the proceedings were over, the judge allowed CBI to briefly interrogate Garg in the courtroom itself. The court also remanded Singla, Narain Rao Manjunath, Managing Director of GG Tronics India Pvt Ltd, and Sandeep Goyal, both businessmen and official contractor to the Railway Board, in CBI custody till May 9.

The agency submitted that their further custodial interrogation was required to know the source of Rs 2 crore which was to be paid to Singla by accused Mahesh Kumar, Member (Staff) in Railway Board.

Kumar has since been suspended as Member of the Railway Board. Accused Vivek Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar, businessmen Samir Sandhir and Rahul Yadav were, however, sent in 14-day judicial custody after the agency said their further custodial interrogation was not required.

The CBI had sought five-day custody of Singla, Manjunath and Goyal, with its prosecutor Akshay Gautam telling the court that the replies given by them during their earlier custodial interrogation are contrary to their recorded conversation and they also need to be confronted with Kumar, the key accused, to bring out the entire conspiracy.

PTI