It’s as if his favourites are conspiring to drag Manmohan Singh down. Pawan Bansal became the second minister from Punjab to bring misery.
At a time when Law Minister Ashwani Kumar’s shenanigans are still a live issue, “another red-letter” day came in form of a corruption trap laid out for Railway Minister Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla who was allegedly caught red-handed accepting Rs 90 lakh from two men acting as conduit between him and Mahesh Kumar, a new appointee to the Railway Board.
Bad timing
The “payment’’ to Railway Minister Pawan Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla, the CBI claims, could have been the “first installment’’ for clinching Mahesh Kumar’s appointment to the Railway Board. How the CBI got whiff of the deal is not known. Acting on a “private tip-off’’ it started tapping Singla and Kumar’s phones.
Bansal offered to resign when he met the Prime Minister even though he pleaded not guilty. Sources say Bansal was asked to hold his horse. The advice came from the party leadership. With Karnataka elections scheduled on Sunday, the Congress could ill-afford another resignation from the Cabinet on corruption charges.
“I had no clue about the matter,’’ Bansal said therafter, adding he hopes the CBI investigation will “clear’’ him.
