CBI books retired Lt General over V K Singh’s bribery charges

CBI on Saturday registered FIRs under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against both Tejinder Singh and Rishi. CBI officers raided the home of Lt Gen Tejinder Singh and reportedly found papers relating to property.

The agency also searched the home of Rishi in Delhi’s Kailash Colony,and that of Thadani’s brother-in-law Rajan Madhu,the director of F Bar and Lounge at The Ashok hotel in the capital.

Raids were also carried out at the homes of Rishi’s employees Anil Mansaramani in Noida,and Vikram Kakia in Mumbai. The agency will summon the suspects for questioning soon.

Defence Minister A K Antony had asked CBI to probe the matter in April.

Over the past six months,investigators have corroborated Gen V K Singh’s statement,and collected evidence to establish its veracity. The “movement of procurement file of Tatra trucks”,“objections raised by then Army Chief”,and retired Lt Gen “Tejinder’s approach to the Army chief” point to a “nexus” between Rishi and Tejinder,a CBI officer said.

CBI is learnt to have established that Tejinder met V K Singh on September 22,2010. An entry made by the then Army Chief in his diary on Tejinder’s bribe offer has emerged as “clinching evidence”,sources said.

V K Singh is understood to have shown this diary to investigators who visited him at the defence ministry. CBI was subsequently able to confirm that Tejinder Singh had been “disallowed” from entering the ministry on the orders of the former Army Chief.

CBI sources said investigations pointed to Tejinder’s links with arms dealers including the jailed Abhishek Verma,who was brought before the retired Lt Gen during the probe.

“Following his retirement,Tejinder allegedly met representatives of several arms dealers. One of them,whom we called for questioning a month ago,is a foreigner,” a CBI officer said.

CBI director A P Singh cleared the filing of the FIR against Tejinder after Director of Prosecution Abdul Aziz gave an opinion in favour of doing so,sources said.

“We have not done anything in a hurry. We took over six months to make an assessment of the officer’s (Tejinder’s) reputation and links with various arms dealers and middlemen,” a CBI officer said.