"You (Kumar) during between January 2013 to May 3, 2013 while working in various capacities, General Manager, western Railways till forenoon of May 1, 2013 and Member (staff) Railway Board in the Ministry of Railways as public servant at various places i.e. Delhi and Mumbai had demanded illegal gratification of Rs 2 crore and had accepted part of it from your co-accused,” the judge said.
“You Mahesh Kumar ...by abusing your official position obtained pecuniary advantage to the tune of Rs 89, 68,000 from accused N R Manjunath, Rahul Yadav, Sameer Sandhir, Sushil Daga, C V Venugopal and M V Murali Krishan which was delivered on your behalf to Vijay Singla and Sandeep Goyal at Chandigarh and thereby you committed an offence under section 13 (2) read with 13(1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and within my cognisance,” the judge said.
The court, while ordering framing of charges, had said that corruption in the country has reached “unimaginable proportions” and the case revealed a “novel way” of payment of bribe to achieve the aim.
“As I had observed earlier in my order, the culture of ‘Sifarish' (recommendation) and right contacts with powerful persons are the only thing which matter today for earning quick money.
“Needless to say, with each changing day, the modus operandi of such corrupt person is also not only changing but the corrupt are becoming more cautious and secretive taking lessons from the previous instances of cases where corrupt officers have been caught and sent for trial,” the judge had said.
