CBI had booked Singh for offering Rs 14 cr to Army chief to influence truck purchase
The CBI on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh for allegedly offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore to then Army Chief Gen VK Singh, who is now a Union Minister, in connection with the Tatra truck deal.
CBI sources said the chargesheet was based purely on circumstantial evidence which includes Tejinder Singh’s meeting with the then Army Chief and the decision to put on hold the order for supply of trucks from Tatra. The then Army Chief had alleged that Tejinder Singh had offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore on September 22, 2010 on behalf of Tatra truck supplier for clearing the file for procurement of 1,676 Tatra HMVs (High Mobility Vehicles) for the Indian Army.
During its probe, the CBI also recorded the statement of then Defence Minister AK Antony, who corroborated the Army Chief had come to his office and informed him that retired lt Gen Tejinder had made a bribe offer.
As a corroborative material in its chargesheet, the CBI has mentioned the orders of the then Army Chief to his staff that lt Gen (retd) Singh should not be given any appointment in future. The agency has also established the alleged nexus between Tejinder Singh and Ravi Rishi, the Chairman of Vectra Group and supplier of Tatra all-terrain vehicles to the Indian Army, the sources said.
On the basis of a complaint by then Army Chief Gen VK Singh, a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) was registered in the matter on April 11, 2012 and was converted into a regular case on October 19, 2012. Gen (retd) VK Sing is now Minister of State of External Affairs and MoS in-charge of Department of Northeast Region. After the registration of the case, searches were also conducted on October 20, 2012 at seven locations in Delhi, Noida and Mumbai.
The chargesheet filed under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act named the retired lieutenant General for having allegedly offered the bribe on behalf of Vectra Group Chairman Ravi Rishi. Section 12 of the Act relates to the offence of offering bribe to a public servant. “After a thorough investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet today against a retired lieutenant General in the Court of Special Judge, Patiala House Courts, in an alleged offer of bribe on behalf of a private supplier to the then Chief of Army Staff,” a CBI spokesperson said.
In a separate case, the CBI is probing the alleged irregularities in the defence deal for the Czech-origin Tatra trucks. The agency has already registered a criminal case against Ravi Rishi, chairman of the UK-based Vectra Group which is the major stakeholder of the Tatra brand, and unknown officials of the defence ministry and Bharat Earth Movers limited (BEMl), a defence public sector undertaking that assembles the all-terrain vehicles.