In an unprecedented move aimed at stamping out corruption from the higher echelons of the Army, the Defence Ministry on Thursday referred to the CBI complaints relating to alleged possession of disproportionate assets by two serving Major-Generals, both recipients of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal last year.
“The Defence Ministry has forwarded to the CBI complaints received against Major-General Ashok Kumar and Major-General SS lamba and has sought a reply,” Defence sources said, adding that the Government will not tolerate corruption at any level.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau of the CBI will now look into the complaints and decide on filing an FIR or a Preliminary Enquiry (PE). The agency will then report back to the Defence Ministry.
The Defence Ministry had in September red-flagged the promotion of certain officers following allegations of impropriety.
Sources said that a meeting of the Special Promotion Board of the Army was held last year to fill the vacancy of three lieutenant-Generals for which about 33 officers were considered.
A set of names cleared by the Board was sent to the Defence Ministry. Following this, a series of complaints against some officers surfaced, many of which were also circulated on the social media.
Taking cognizance of the matter, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar himself looked into the issue and decided to refer the complaints to the CBI for a probe.
A scrutiny by the Ministry found that one of the two officers had faced a CBI enquiry a few
years ago over allegations of corruption in a project undertaken by Border Roads Organisation (BRO), sources said.
The CBI then did not find enough evidence for criminal prosecution. “They suggested that this does not fall in the ambit of criminality, it falls in the ambit of disciplinary procedure guidelines,” the sources said.
“BRO is a mixed cadre organisation. The matter came to the Army. The Army said that the act pertained to civilian issues and hence action cannot be taken by them. The matter got tossed from here to there as Army disciplinary proceedings are different from that of the civilians,” the sources said, adding the actual proceedings are yet to be initiated.
In the meantime, his promotion came up and he got the Discipline and Vigilance clearance since there was no formal proceedings against him.