New Delhi, July 19: The judge handling the investigation into the railway scam that cost Pawan Bansal his job as Railways Minister in May has said that she may ask for the former minister's role to be examined during the trial, reported NDTV. 

"The high and mighty should not escape the law," the judge said in a written order on Thursday

The CBI, which is investigating an alleged deal of 10 crores to help a man get a coveted post on the Railways Board, has said that there is no evidence to prove Mr Bansal's involvement, though it was his nephew who was caught accepting a 90-lakh kickback, reportedly the first installment of a larger payment. "The culture of sifarish (lobbying for recommendations) and right contacts will not do," CBI special judge Swarna Kanta Sharma told the CBI in her written order.

Vijay Singla, the minister's nephew, has been arrested. The CBI said the deal for the cash-for-office payment was finalized at the minister's official residence in Delhi.

Earlier this month, the CBI said that Mr Bansal will serve as prosecution witness. The judge has responded. "If the CBI has chosen to make Mr Bansal a witness, then at this juncture, there being no evidence against him, the court cannot pass any order or question him, except during the trial."

Pawan Bansal has given a 12-page statement to the CBI and also gone through phone transcripts that give details of how his nephew was using his network to fix a better posting for Mahesh Kumar  

"After the CBI interrogated me for seven hours and could not find anything, that means CBI is wrong?" Mr Bansal said today.