The Army Chief created a furore beginning this week by claiming
that a retired officer-turned-lobbyist tried to bribe in his office in South Block.
The issued rocked the Parliament for two consecutive days and Defence Minister
AK Antony defended himself by saying that he could not have ordered probe into the
issue as the General did not give a written complaint.
According to the CBI sources, on Friday evening General Singh
had sent a reply to the agency accepting the bribery allegations. The CBI,
however, said that it will still be a while before an FIR (First Information
Report) is being registered in the issue as there were certain gaps in the Army
Chief’s statement.
“CBI has received a reply from Army Chief wherein he has
confirmed offer of bribe and said he will give more details soon. Other details
like bribe amount have not been mentioned,” sources said.
When the agency sleuths met the Army Chief in his South
Block office earlier this week, General Singh had sought time to prepare his
statement. After that the General forwarded another complaint to the CBI accusing
a serving Lieutenant General of corruption. While the CBI has given a clean
chit to the serving officer, recommended for promotion as the head of the
Eastern Army Command, the move led to the questioning of the Army Chief’s
motives and the delay in giving the written statement in the bribery episode.
As per the Army Chief, Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh – former
head of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) - had met him in September 2010
and offered him Rs. 14 crore as bribe to clear acquisition of another 600 “sub-standard”
heavy duty trucks – an acquisition that has the approval of successive
governments since the last 25 years.
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