NEW DELHI (TIP):
The CBI is likely to wait for the General Election to be over before calling former Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan for examination in connection with alleged irregularities in appointments in the Bokaro steel plant. Sources said they had already questioned his personal staff in connection with the case and Paswan might be summoned after the elections.

The role of Paswan came under the scanner of the agency following recovery of some documents which, agency sources claimed, indicated that his staff might have been actively involved in extending favours to some candidates. Paswan has denied allegations. In January, the CBI registered two separate cases related to alleged irregularities in the appointments in the middle and junior management level in the public sector undertaking in 2008 in which a former executive director of the plant and other former senior officers have also been named as accused.

The agency has named junior managers SM Razi, Rajkumar Jatia and Yogesh Chandra Patnaik in the case. They are relatives of a former Governor, a former Union minister, who is now a Rajya Sabha candidate, and a former High Court judge, respectively, as stated in the FIRs. Paswan was the Union minister for chemicals, fertilisers and steel during the UPA government between May 2004 and May 2009 and these alleged fraudulent appointments were made during his tenure.