Govt orders CBI probe after Army Chief claims bribe offer

In a report that appeared in The Hindu on Monday,Singh said he had “gone straight to Mr Antony” and informed him about the bribe offer. “I told him,if you think I’m a misfit,I will walk out,” the paper quoted Singh as saying.

Gen. Singh was apparently approached on September 22,2010. Defence ministry officials said Antony ordered the probe this morning.

In another interview given to the Hindi weekly newspaper Chauthi Duniya,Gen. Singh said that the bribe was offered to approve a case to procure trucks for the Army.

While Gen. Singh did not name the retired army officer who allegedly approached him,Army Headquaters had alleged recently that former Director General of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA),Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh,had offered bribes on the behalf of Tatra,which is the original equipment manufacturer of the trucks,and Vectra,that holds a stake in the company.

“One of the men had the gumption to walk up to me and tell me that if I cleared the tranche,he would give me Rs 14 crore. He was offering a bribe to me,to the Army Chief. He told me that people had taken money before me and they will take money after me,” Gen. Singh told Chauthi Duniya.

On Monday afternoon,the ministry sought to defend the decision to procure 7,000 trucks from defence PSU BEML that had an agreement with Tatra to manufacture the trucks in India under an agreement signed in 1988.

Joint Secretary (Land Systems) Rashmi Verma said 7,000 trucks had been ordered on a nomination basis and that no quality issues had been reported. She admitted,however,that the trucks were facing some after-sales service issues.

Asked why the trucks were being bought on a nomination basis for the past 26 years,Verma said that recently a competitive tender had been issued,as the Army had changed qualitative requirements. She elaborated that earlier the requirements of the Army were so stringent that only the Tatra vehicle complied with it. The original contract was signed in 1986 and was renewed in 1996-97 by the ministry,Verma said.

Reacting to Gen. Singh’s allegation,Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said,“It is really unfortunate. Being a government official and head of the Indian Army,he should have registered an FIR if someone came to him and offered a bribe.”

Hours later,however,Abhishek Manu Singhvi,another spokesman,said that the right tradition and convention in political parties was “not commenting on Army and defence matters”.