Bansal says BJP trying to defame him after ED attaches ''bribe'' cash seized from nephew

New Delhi/Chandigarh, May 7  

Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Congress candidate from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday accused his BJP rival Kirron Kher of attempting to defame him.

Bansal vent his ire against the BJP and its sitting MP in Chandigarh after the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday attached Rs 89.68 lakh cash in a money laundering case involving his nephew.

The ED has attached cash worth Rs 89.68 lakh in a money laundering case involving the nephew of Congress leader and former railway minister.

“Dragging me mischievously in a case of which I am a prosecution witness, proves that the BJP has already smelled defeat in Chandigarh. Hence, Kirron Kher and her party are now trying all desperate means to defame me,” he told reporters here.

Bansal said, “Six years back, the case filed against me by the CBI when I was the railway minister was blown out of proportion. For over eight hours I was interrogated by the CBI but nothing was found against me. On the contrary, I was made the prosecution witness in that case completely acquitting me of all the charges.”  

“Had I got anything to do with that case, do you think the BJP government over the last five years would have spared me?” he posed.

Bansal alleged that ever since his name was announced as the Congress’ Chandigarh candidate, the BJP has been trying hard to “smear” his name in one way or the other.

“The BJP has already accepted defeat. Otherwise, instead of finding ways to attack me, they would have concentrated on talking about their own achievements. The truth is that the sitting MP has done nothing for the development of Chandigarh,” he said.

Chandigarh Congress chief Pardeep Chhabra alleged that the BJP had “stooped to the lowest level of dirty politics”.

“Recently, Kirron Kher has been served with two show cause notices by the poll panel. It seems the BJP has lost its balance. Amit Shah’s rally in Chandigarh has already turned out to be a faux pas. Nothing is working for them,” he said.

Chhabra claimed this was an old case which has no relevance now and is a deliberate move by the BJP to defame Bansal since they have nothing to say against him.

“It is a deliberate attempt to divert the attention of the voters from their failures to something which does not hold true. She (Kher) is using official machinery which she could not use for people’s good,” he alleged. 

The ED said, in a statement, that it has issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to freeze the “bribe” money, which according to it was “proceeds of crime”.

The cash was allegedly seized by the CBI from the office of Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla in 2013 in a bribery and corruption case related to appointments at top positions in the railways.

The ED filed a separate criminal case based on CBI’s FIR and charge sheet against Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar, Vijay Singla, Sandeep Goyal and seven others.

The agency said CBI’s probe found that Mahesh Kumar, a 1975 batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), was posted as General Manager, Western Railways and he wanted to get himself appointed as Member (Electrical), Railway Board instead of Member (Staff).

“For this, he was in touch with N Manjunath who was further in touch with Sandeep Goyal, a friend of Singla. Singla demanded Rs 10 crore through Sandeep Goyal from N Manjunath to get Mahesh Kumar posted as Member (Electrical),” the ED said, quoting the CBI probe.

While delivering a token amount to Singla and Goyal, the CBI team raided Singla’s office at Sector 28 in Chandigarh and seized Rs 89,68,000, it said.

During that time, Bansal was the railway minister and his nephew Vijay Singla was allegedly caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 89,68,000.

The ED said its own probe dug out details of the alleged bribery case.

“It is revealed that N Manjunath on behalf of Mahesh Kumar was persuading various railway vendors, manufactures, contractors for making arrangement of bribe amount for promotion of Mahesh Kumar as Member (Electrical) by alluring them that all the contributors would be taken care of/benefited from the desired posting of Mahesh Kumar,” it said.

Investigation found that the first instalment of bribe amount was “contributed” by N Manjunath, M V Murli Krishna, Sushil Daga and the Venketeshwara Rail Nirman Pvt Ltd.

“The said amount was routed through the account of various companies/individuals and with assistance of hawala agents,” the ED said, adding that a probe into the matter was underway. — PTI