MoD blacklists seven companies

The Defence Ministry has issued a notice suspending all business dealings with seven companies,including two major international defence firms....

The Defence Ministry has issued a notice suspending all business dealings with seven companies,including two major international defence firms,after their names surfaced in an ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry.

Sources revealed that orders were issued on Thursday to stop dealings with the companies till further notice,effectively blacklisting them from defence deals. The decision to bar them may be temporary,pending the CBI inquiry,but the order has send ripples across defence circles as this is the first time after the Denel controversy in 2005 that such high profile companies have been barred from business.

Sources said the tainted companies,including an Israeli firm,have been named in a CBI probe into corruption charges against former Director General of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) Sudipta Ghosh,who was arrested last month. Ghosh had allegedly received bribes from defence firms,including international companies,to favour them for contracts issued by the OFB. He is alleged to have accumulated huge wealth by charging commission from suppliers to ordnance factories in several big deals/contracts.

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The CBI FIR names the companies,including three small-time Indian defence manufacturing firms,which allegedly paid bribes to bag contracts.

Among the four others arrested is Pradeep Rana who is charged as being a middleman for Israeli Military Industries (IMI). IMI,which has ties with the OFB for manufacturing of small arms,recently bagged a mega Rs 1,200 crore tender to set up an ordnance factory at Nalanda to produce ammunition for the Armys 155 mm Bofors artillery guns.

Another person arrested,Ramesh Nambiar,is charged with helping Ghosh open a bank account in Singapore and sending black money overseas. He is also charged to have acted as a middleman on behalf of a defence firm.

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