CBI books retired Lt Gen over V K Singh bribery allegations

Gen (retd) V K Singh alleged in March this year that the then retired Lt Gen Tejinder Singh met him on September 22,2010,and offered him Rs 14 crore at the behest of Ravi Rishi to clear 1,676 “substandard’’ Tatra trucks for the Army. In April,Defence Minister A K Antony asked CBI to probe the matter.

CBI Saturday registered FIRs under Sec 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against both Tejinder Singh and Rishi.

It found property papers in the name of Tejinder Singh in the house of the retired Lt Gen. It searched the home of Rishi in Delhi’s Kailash Colony,and that of Thadani’s brother-in-law Rajan Madhu,the director of F Bar and Lounge at The Ashok hotel in the capital.

Raids were also carried out at the homes of Rishi’s employees Anil Mansaramani in Noida,and Vikram Kakia in Mumbai. The agency will summon the suspects for questioning soon.

Over the past six months,CBI has corroborated V K Singh’s statement,and collected evidence to establish its veracity. The “movement of procurement file of Tatra trucks”,“objections raised by then Army Chief”,and retired Lt Gen “Tejinder’s approach to Army chief” point to a “nexus” between Rishi and Tejinder,a CBI officer said.

CBI is learnt to have established that Tejinder met V K Singh on September 22,2010. An entry made by the then Army chief in his diary on Tejinder’s bribe offer has emerged as the “clinching evidence”,sources said. Gen (retd) Singh is understood to have shown this diary to CBI investigators who visited him in the defence ministry.

The FIR was registered after CBI gathered sufficient evidence to back the allegations made by the former Army chief. Following a difference of opinion among its senior officers,the probe team sought the opinion of Director of Prosecution (DoP) Abdul Aziz,who is understood to have been in favour of filing an FIR. CBI director A P Singh then signed off on the file.

Sources in the agency confirmed to The Indian Express that while the alleged nexus between Tejinder and Rishi would be the subject matter of investigations,the fact that Defence Minister Antony named the retired lieutenant general in Parliament and complained to the CBI was important.

“We have not done anything in a hurry. We took over six months to make an assessment of the officer’s (Tejinder)reputation and links with various arms dealers and middlemen,” a CBI officer said.