NEW DELHI, May 2:
Carrying forward its probe on the bribery allegation made by Army Chief Gen V K Singh, the CBI today questioned retired Lt Gen Tejinder Singh for the first time for his alleged role in the Tatra case.
Singh arrived at the CBI headquarters this morning and was grilled at length in connection with the Tatra case as the probe so far suggested role of some former Army officers in clearing the deal for the trucks, official sources said.
They said Singh was also asked to reply to the allegations levelled against him by the Army Chief who claimed in his statement that the former Lt Gen had approached him in 2010 with a bribe offer of Rs 14 crore to clear a tranche of 600 Tatra trucks for the Army.
Sources in the CBI said, Tejinder Singh was asked about the reasons of his visit to Army Chief’s office on September 22, 2010 when the alleged bribe offer was made to Gen V K Singh.
Tejinder Singh has denied all these allegations and also filed a contempt case against the Army Chief.
The CBI had recorded the statement of Army Chief on April 20 in which he had made the allegation against Tejinder Singh saying that he had made the offer on behalf of Ravi Rishi of Tatra trucks, the sources said.
Rishi and his company, Vectra, have also denied any wrong doing in the case.
CBI has registered a case in purchases of Tatra Trucks to Army on March 30 against Rishi, unknown officials of Defence Ministry and UK-based Vectra company.
The CBI sources claimed that documents showed that there was an apparent hurry shown in signing the Memorandum of Understanding in just three days between Tatra Sipox UK and the BEML in June, 1997.
Rishi holding substantial shares in Tatra Sipox UK has denied allegations of any wrong doing.
The agency is probing alleged irregularities in assigning supply from Czechoslovakia-based Tatra, with which the agreement was originally signed in 1986, to the Tatra-Sipox UK owned by Rishi in 1997 showing it as Original Equipment Manufacturer and the fully-owned subsidiary of Czech company, they said.
A CBI spokesperson had said this was against the provisions of Defence Procurement Procedure for supplying the vehicles to Indian Army on the basis of the orders placed by the Ministry of Defence.
“It is further alleged that in this manner, vehicles worth thousands of crores of rupees have been supplied to the Indian Army. In continuation of the aforesaid conspiracy to cause undue benefit to the UK-based company, the unknown officials of the Defence PSU allowed change of currency from US Dollar to Euro and further by not levying the Liquidated damages, thereby causing further loss of Rs 13.27 crores,” the CBI had said. (PTI)
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