Railgate: Call records, meeting with Mahesh Kumar nail Pawan Kumar Bansal

NEW DELHI: Repeated references to PK Bansal in a host of phone conversations intercepted by CBI between his nephew Vijay Singla, his personal secretary Rahul Bhandari and top railway officer Mahesh Kumar for fixing the latter's posting as Member (Electrical), Railway Board, and a series of questionable meetings in April has proved to be the bane of Bansal.

CBI investigators said a "chunk" of the 1,000-odd intercepted conversations were between Singla, Bhandari and Kumar in which all of them were hinting that Bansal was on board in the deal being struck between them. Not just that, CBI has evidence that Kumar met Bansal specifically with a request to give him the Member (Electrical) post when the minister was in Mumbai on April 17 and again on April 29 at the minister's official residence in Delhi. This was after Kumar had a meeting with Singla on April 7 at Bansal's residence in Delhi, where the negotiations for a deal first started though Bansal was not a part of this meeting.

In his interrogation, Kumar has told CBI that Singla had assured him that Bansal was in the loop and Kumar said he was sure Singla would get his job done much like two other appointments in the Kapurthala Rail Coach Factory and Chitranjan Loco Works that had been lately fixed by Singla and Bhandari as well.

Singla's phone records show his location to be invariably at Bansal's office or residence while he was in Delhi in April and Kumar has confessed that Singla was using Bhandari's official room in Rail Bhawan while meeting him for the deal.

Top CBI officials said it would be easier for them now to probe the railway minister's office since Bansal has stepped down. The officials said the arrest of Rahul Bhandari could not be ruled out.