By IANS,
Chandigarh : BJP leader Satya Pal Jain Sunday demanded that the CBI should interrogate Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal who has said that he has no business links with his nephew who was arrested for allegedly accepting Rs.90 lakh to promote a railway official.
At a press conference here Sunday, Jain produced documents to claim that Bansal and his family had close business links with his nephew Vijay Singla, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday.
Jain is in charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legal cell and a former member of parliament from Chandigarh.
“I am surprised why the CBI has not interrogated Bansal yet. Documents that establish a clear business link between Bansal’s family and his nephew are available,” Jain said.
The bribery scam is the latest to hit the UPA government at the centre.
Jain claimed that Bansal’s two sons were directors in some of the companies floated by Vijay Singla, who is the son of Bansal’s sister.
Singla was arrested Saturday with three others for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.90 lakh. The bribe was paid to him here Friday by two people for getting a senior railway officer, Mahesh Kumar, appointed as a member of the powerful Railway Board. Mahesh Kumar was appointed to the post May 2.
Jain claimed that companies floated by Singla had given the address of Bansal’s palatial house in an upscale area of Chandigarh’s Sector 28.
“If they are using his address for their companies, how can there not be a business link? Why is Bansal not coming out in public and answering questions being raised on him?” Jain said.
Singla, who is setting up big a mall-cum-hotel project, Acropolis, in Chandigarh’s industrial area, has business interests in real estate, industry and other projects. Singla’s fortunes also moved up with Bansal’s rise as a politician and a union minister.
Jain alleged that a few palatial houses were bought in Sector 28 (around Bansal’s house) and adjoining Panchkula town by relatives of the railway minister.
He said that a thorough investigation be carried out by the CBI into the growth of the finances and assets of the Bansal family and their relatives in recent years.
He alleged that a senior IAS officer, Rahul Bhandari, who is the son-in-law of Bansal’s sister and is the railway minister’s private secretary, had also bought properties in and around Chandigarh recently. “His role should also be investigated by the CBI,” Jain said.