The railways scam just got murkier. The central bureau of investigation (CBI), which is probing the scam, claims to have uncovered another racket at the top, allegedly involving prime accused and former railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's nephew, Vijay Singla. 

According to sources in CBI, Singla, along with Bansal's private secretary Rahul Bhandari, used to charge a fixed amount as commission on each of the 2,000 of the 12,000 tickets set aside every day for special quota reservations subject to approval from the railway board.

CBI officials investigating the railway appointment scam said Singla admitted to this during his interrogation.

The officials said the irregularities could not be found out initially because some railway board members were allowed a free hand in running the same commission system for the rest of the special quota tickets.

According to sources, the investigators are now examining all special quota tickets booked during Bansal's tenure at the ministry to gauge and approximate the amount Singla and the others allegedly made through the commissions. The investigating agency has accessed all documents from last year to track the ‘racket’, it is learnt.

This has set the cat loose among the pigeons – railway board members who could be outed in the racket are suddenly feeling the heat. "The entire board is now in a spot. They don't want this to become public," one investigating officer told Governance Now. All board members, the officer said, are edgy, and there have been requests from some members not to reveal the names.

How ‘commission scam’ game was played

Touts/private booking agents solicit applications under the special quota – foreign tourist quota, members of parliament quota, defence quota, headquarters/high official quota, defence quota, etc – and charge a  certain commission from the ticket-seekers. The commission from the amount paid for each ticket is then passed on to those who run the racket.

The CBI had arrested Singla in early May for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 90 lakh for promotion of railway board (staff) member Mahesh Kumar. Pawan Bansal, who has since stepped down as the railway minister, has claimed that he had no information about any irregularities his nephew may have been involved in.