Graft: CFSL report says taped conversation

The mobile phone and the recorded conversation was given to CFSL,Delhi. Three years later,the CFSL report has testified the conversation took place between the two officers,Ramandeep Singh and V K Srivastava,former principal director. In a detailed report,Dr Rajinder Singh,director-cum-chemical examiner to the Central government,CFSL,has given the finding that the conversation in question has “no tampering/editing”. Chandigarh Newsline has a copy of the CFSL report.

According to the transcript (see box),the two officers were chatting about “return of bribe money”. It was on May 28,2011,that the CBI had registered a criminal case against V K Srivastava,Ramandeep Singh and a private person,Jaswinder Kaur,a Punjab resident,on charges of cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Srivastava and Singh had allegedly demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs 3 lakh for appointing Kaur to the post of sub-divisional officer (SDO-III). According to the CBI,Kaur,through Ramandeep Singh,had paid a bribe of Rs 3 lakh to Srivastava. The bribe was demanded and accepted in 2009 and the case was registered after an inquiry into the case.

There was no complainant in the case. Commenting on the role played by the officers,the special CBI Court,Chandigarh,has ruled that “during investigation (by CBI) several irregularities and illegalities in the selection of Jaswinder Kaur were found”. The investigation revealed that Srivastava issued an appointment letter to Kaur a day before his retirement from service (on December 30,2009). After unsuccessful candidates alleged “manipulation” in the examination and selection process,an internal inquiry was conducted by the defence officers following which Kaur’s appointment was cancelled on January 8,2010.

Aggrieved,Kaur started pressuring Ramandeep (through another defence officer) to return the “bribe money”. It is in this context that Ramandeep and Srivastava are heard chatting over the phone regarding “return of bribe money”.