Railgate: BJP points to Pawan Kumar Bansal-Vijay Singla business links

CHANDIGARH: As railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s fate hung in balance, local BJP leader Satya Pal Jain led the opposition’s campaign to derail the railway minister’s political wagon. While Bansal had vehemently denied having any business dealings with his sister’s son, Vijay Singla, Jain presented documents revealing close business links between the two.

Jain, who heads BJP’s legal cell and is a former MP from Chandigarh, claimed Bansal’s two sons were directors in companies floated by Singla. He also claimed Singla’s companies had given the address of Bansal’s house in Chandigarh’s Sector 28. “If they are using his address for their companies, how can there not be a business link,” Jain asked. “We demand Bansal come out and give details of all the companies his wife and sons are directors of,” said Jain.

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. Saying that finances and assets of the Bansal family and their relatives in recent years should be investigated, the BJP leader applauded the CBI for ‘daring’ to arrest a senior minister’s kin.