New Delhi/Chandigarh: The Congress-led UPA government was hit by a new crisis Saturday as the nephew of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was sent to CBI custody after being arrested for taking a Rs.90 lakh bribe from a senior railway official, triggering opposition calls for the minister’s sacking.
An embattled Bansal pleaded innocence and claimed he had no knowledge of nephew Vijay Singla’s activities even as opposition parties demanded a wider probe into recent postings and award of contracts in the railway ministry, which the Congress has come to head for the first time in decades.
With the opposition still insistent on Law Minister Ashwani Kumar’s sacking for his controversial role in the coal block allocation scandal, the Congress core group met at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence in the evening to discuss the situation arising from the embarrsassing arrest of Bansal’s nephew.
