WHO IS MANJUNATH IN RAILWAY BRIBERY CASE?

By Arun Shetty / Bangalore

Manjunath, a US-returned electrical engineer-cum-innovator, was helping his ‘favourite’ officials occupy vital positions in railway board and the ministry, and they in turn helped him in expanding his business.

The Rs 90-lakh bribery scam has kind of set off a train of revelations. By latching on to Bangalore-based businessman Narayan Rao Manjunath, who allegedly paid the bribe to railway minister Pawan Bansal’s nephew, Vijay Singla, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seems to have hit the tracks to unearth murky deals involved in the railway ministry awarding contracts worth over Rs 50,000 crore.
The sleuths are grilling Manjunath, managing director of G G Tronics located in Peenya Industrial Area 3rd Phase, after the Patiala House Court in Delhi remanded him to custody. With eight people arrested in the case so far, opposition parties have intensified their demand for Bansal’s resignation.

Taking off from the money trail that is being uncovered, Bangalore Mirror started digging for Manjunath’s antecedents. The signalling equipment contractor allegedly paid the bribe to Singla, through a fellow-contractor sandeep Goyal, at the behest of railway board member (staff) Mahesh Kumar. The preliminary findings that emerged following interaction with senior railway officials and contractors are mind-boggling.

The rise and rise of Manjunath
Manjunath is a US-returned electrical engineer-cum-innovator who rose from being a small-scale entrepreneur to a multi-crore contractor by lobbying with ‘ambitious’ officials. His reach grew way beyond Bangalore — he, in fact, was helping his ‘favourite’ officials occupy vital positions in the railway board and ministry and they in turn helped him in expanding his business.

Hailing from Tumkur district, and a resident of Bangalore’s Jnanabharathi area, Manjunath is a god-fearing man, said his friends. His office is full of photographs and miniature idols of all Hindu gods and he went on pilgrimage to Sabrimala every year.

People who once used to interact with Manjunath told Bangalore Mirror, “He started off with small-scale electrical products like sensors and integrated circuits which are used in the railway signalling equipment. He became famous after coming up with the digital axle counter system — the technology that determines the number of axles that pass over the tracks. Once the railways pressed this safety system into use throughout the country, Manjunath monopolised the supply chain.

It propelled Manjunath’s company’s growth — his small-scale industry grew into a major railway signalling research and development centre, employing around 500 people. He started getting orders from South Africa, Malaysia and other countries. He used to show his company’s balancesheets to his friends, but even they raised eyebrows at his phenomenal growth. 

Manjunath interacted only with top railway officials — never with the political class. He started climbing the ladder when Mahesh Kumar was the divisional railway manager of South Western Railway (Bangalore Division) in 2002. “Kumar helped Manjunath bag small railway contracts and the two nurtured the rapport over the years,” a railway source said.

Once an ‘upright man’
Manjunath who started his operations at Basaveshwaranagar shifted base to Peenya in 2009 after the BJP government allotted him 25,000 sq ft plot. The allotment was made by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for Rs 1 crore, sources said. Another power-broker who knows the accused said, “Manjunath is not the kind of person who would take the murky route. On several occasions he had said he would let go of opportunities than crawl before ministers. But I guess circumstances change a man and the same must have happened to him.”

CBI sources said, “Manjunath was used to make the initial payment of Rs 90 lakh to railway minister Bansal’s nephew. As a railway board member and Western Railway general manager, Mahesh Kumar was eyeing the post of member (electrical) in the board. He contacted Manjunath (whom he knew from his Bangalore days) to arrange finances to make it happen. Manjunath could arrange only Rs 90 lakh which was to be paid to Panchkula-based contractor Sandeep Goyal last Friday at Chandigarh. That is when the trap was laid.”

The investigating agency sources said, “It is not a straight-forward bribery case. There are several vested interests and lots of sub-plots.”

A lot is at stake
Officials liaising with the railway board said on condition of anonymity, “The money pertaining to modernisation projects is huge and has triggered intense lobbying by both officials and railway contractors. Everyone is eyeing the Rs 50,000 crore worth tenders that are to be floated by June this year. In fact, two days before the bribery scandal rocked the nation, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved setting up of two rail engine factories. One of them, to be set up at Madhepura in Bihar, will supply Indian Railways with 800 electric locomotives of 12,000 hp each. The other one will be a diesel locomotive factory at Marhowrah in Bihar. A rail-coach factory has been mooted for Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. No wonder contractors will be doing everything possible to bag these high-value projects — electrification after all is a great money-spinner.”

Sources in the CBI said that they are now checking the visitor's logbook at Kumar’s office to identify the railway contractors who visited him and the frequency of their visits. "Manjunath was one of those frequenting Kumar's office. We are trying to ascertain whether Kumar had promised to get him any contract as a return favour for helping him become member (electrical) in the railway board, and subsequently its chairman."

Grilling Manjunath, Goyal and Mahesh about the Rs 90 lakh bribe payment, the sleuths found inconsistencies in their replies.