The CBI has booked five Army personnel, including a colonel, for allegedly receiving bribe amount worth Rs 18 lakh from a supplier of rations for troops posted in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
This is the second FIR in the recent past when the CBI has booked against army officers for corruption in supplies.
In the latest case, the agency has named Colonel Raman Dahda, Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Kumar, Subedar Devender Kumar, Havildar Abhay Singh, Subedar Sahuran Sahu and supplier K K Yangfo in the FIR for criminal conspiracy and graft.
Dahda was the then Commanding Officer of the 556 Army Supply Corps and Mahendra Kumar a platoon commander. The duo has been booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act besides criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code.
The FIR alleged that the officers received Rs 18 lakh in cash from civilian contractors in regard to procurement of fresh and dry rations for troops deployed in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The CBI FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint from the Army.
Dahda allegedly misused his official position and received Rs 4.15 lakh from supplier Yangfo through two transactions in his father’s bank account. According to the complaint, Mahender Kumar, who was responsible for quality check, allegedly misused his official position and took Rs 1 lakh as bribe.
Subedar Devender Kumar allegedly took a bribe of Rs 2.04 lakh, Havildar Abhay Kumar Rs and Subedar Sahuran Saho Rs 7.65 lakh in three separate transactions from Yangfo.
Yangfo, a civilian contractor in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang, supplied ration for the Army between 2015 and 2017.
The CBI had earlier registered a Preliminary Enquiry which revealed that undue advantage was given to an entire chain of officials and unit representatives involved in checking of quality and quantity of items being supplied by Yangfo.
Following prima facie evidentiary materials emerging during the PE, the agency registered an FIR against the suspects.
The CBI had earlier registered a similar FIR against Lt Col Amit Sharma and Lt Col Sutikshan Rana, officers of the Army Service Corps, who allegedly received bribes worth Rs 82 lakh between 2012 and 2016 from a supplier of ration in Nagaland.