Defence Ministry asks for CBI probe against two ’corrupt’ major generals

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 29, 2016: The Defence Ministry has sought a CBI probe into the corruption complaints against two top Army officers. Both the officer, of Major General rank, are accused of having assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

 

The Ministry had in September red-flagged the promotion of certain officers following allegations of impropriety.

"The Defence Ministry has forwarded to CBI complaints against these two officers and has sought a reply," defence sources said on Thursday, adding that the government will not tolerate corruption at any level.

The CBI will now look into the complaints and report back to the Ministry.

Giving a background to the case, sources said that a meeting of the Special Promotion Board of the Army was held last year to fill up the vacancy of three Lieutenant Generals for which about 33 officers were considered.

A set of names cleared by the Board was sent to the Defence Ministry.

However, following the meeting of the Board, a series of complaints against some officers surfaced, many of which were being circulated on the social media too.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar himself looked into the issue.

It was found that one of the two officers, against whom the Ministry has roped in the agency, had faced a CBI inquiry few years back over allegations of corruption in a project undertaken by Border Roads Organisation, sources said.

The CBI did not find enough evidence for criminal prosecution. "They suggested that this does not fall in the ambit of criminality, it falls in the ambit of disciplinary procedure guidelines", they added.

"BRO is a mixed cadre organisation. The matter came to the Army. The Army said that the act pertained to civilian issues and hence action cannot be taken up by them. The matter got tossed from here to there as army disciplinary proceeding is different from that of the civilians," the sources said, adding the actual proceedings have not started.

In the meantime, his promotion came up and he got the Discipline and Vigilance (DV) clearance since there was no formal proceedings against him. (With agency inputs)

 

Courtesy: Zeenews