Their Boss is out of bounds, MoD suspends four officials

Their Boss is out of bounds, MoD suspends four officials
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: In what has snowballed into one of the biggest scandals involving the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and senior Army officials, four persons, including Major General P.S.K. Chaudhary, were today suspended following the revelation made by a web portal about their alleged involvement in ``fixing defence deals'' for money.

The Army Headquarters also decided to order a Court of Inquiry, headed by a serving Lieutenant General, against the Army officials whose names have come up in the expose.

Even as the MoD dithered on taking action against Additional Defence Secretary L.N. Mehta, it was swift to suspend three relatively junior officers in addition to Maj Gen Chaudhary, Additional Director General (Weapons and Equipment). The suspended MoD officials are Deputy Secretary H.C. Pant (staff officer in the Ordnance Factory Board), Assistant Financial Adviser Narendra Singh and section officer, Directorate General Ordnance and Supply (DGOS), P Sasi.

Sources said other serving Army officials whose involvement was suspected had been called to Delhi to appear for questioning at South Block. These include Maj Generals Satnam Singh, Director General (Operations), Kargil Sector, and Himmat Singh Ahluwalia, Additional Director General (Ordnance), Brigadier Iqbal Singh, prospective procurement officer, and Colonel Anil Sehgal, then Director, DGOS, now posted at Jabalpur.

``They are expected to arrive late in the evening today and will then be officially questioned in uniform. The suspension orders will be given to them after that. Till then action against them will remain pending,'' an official said. The MoD spokesman said Maj Gen Chaudhary had been suspended only after a ``preliminary inquiry''.

Maj Gen Chaudhary was reportedly shown the clandestinely shot video footage where he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh and a gold chain from representatives of the fictitious company which tried to draw him outto sell a tank navigation system.

The spokesman said the Ministry would take ``strict action'' against any other official if any delinquency of conduct was established in due course. About Additional Defence Secretary Mehta, the spokesman said action would only be taken after a preliminary inquiry by the MoD and clearance from the cadre controlling authority -- the Ministry of Personnel. Mehta is a Haryana cadre IAS officer.

The action against the officials, who had been shown in the secretly-taped video cassettes either accepting or showing the willingness to receive bribe, came after a high-level meeting late last night, chaired by Defence Minister George Fernandes.

The meeting was attended by Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sushil Kumar and top officials of Army and Air Force. Chief of Army Staff General S. Padmanabhan, who was in Dehra Dun, was asked to rush to Delhi, apparently to clear the decks for action against the officers.