Tatra trucks corruption case: What the CBI said in its chargesheet

The CBI in its charge sheet had alleged that in the monthof August-September 2010, the file pertaining to procurementof 1,676 Tatra vehicles was pending before V K Singh, who isnow a Minister of State of External Affairs and Minister ofState in-charge of Department of Northeast Region

The then Chief of Army Staff (COAS) was not convinced with the total projected requirement of the vehicles and it appeared to him that the requirement has been inflated, the agency had said, adding VK Singh had sought fresh opinion on the issue from different quarters.

In its charge sheet, the CBI alleged that Tejinder Singh met VK Singh in his office in South Block on 22 September, 2010, and during the meeting, he offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore to VK Singh for clearing the file of Tatra vehicles by first week of October.

VK Singh got infuriated and asked Tejinder Singh to immediately leave his office and he, thereafter, intimated AK Antony about the whole incident of bribe being offered to him, the CBI had said.

“AK Antony, Raksha Mantri, in his statement in Parliament on 27 March, 2012 and the one recorded under
section 161 CrPC during investigation, has confirmed having been informed by Gen VK Singh about such offer of bribe made to him about one to one-and-a-half-year ago by Lt Gen(retd.) Tejinder Singh,” CBI had claimed in its charge sheet.

“During investigation AK Antony admitted having been informed by Gen VK Singh with respect to offer of bribe by Lt Gen (retd.) Tejinder Singh for clearing the Tatra trucks purchase file,” CBI had said in its nine-page charge sheet.

CBI has arrayed 20 prosecution witnesses, including AK Antony, TKA Nair, the then advisor to the Prime Minister, and VK Singh and the agency had filed a set of 18 documents along with the charge sheet.

CBI has said in the charge sheet that according to VK Singh, when he had reported the incident about alleged bribe offer by Tejinder Singh, the then defence minister had “expressed shock” over it.

It had alleged that during the probe, the former Army chief had claimed to have recorded the alleged conversation between him and Tejinder Singh on September 22, 2010 but “the same was not provided by him (V K Singh) to the investigating agency despite efforts.”

The CBI also claimed that before the alleged bribe offer was made, Tejinder Singh and VK Singh had “excellent working relations.”

“General VK Singh on 25 July, 2010 (on request of Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh) had issued a letter to S S Menon, National Security Advisor (NSA), recommending Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh for the post of Chief of National Technical Research Organisation. This proves that the COAS (V K Singh) and Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh had excellent working relations till the alleged offer of bribe was made by him to the COAS,” the charge sheet had said.

“However, after the date on which the bribe was allegedly offered, these two officers have not been in touch. This is another circumstance to prove some unpleasant interaction on the date the offer was made,” it had claimed.

The agency had alleged that the complaint and statement given by VK Singh was “duly corroborated” by the chain of circumstances which proved that Tejinder Singh had offered him bribe of Rs 14 crore to clear file relating to Tatra trucks.

“The complaint/statement of Gen VK Singh has been duly corroborated by above mentioned chain of circumstances vide which it is proved that Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh met Gen VK Singh, COAS, at his South Block office on 22 September, 2010 and made an offer of bribe of Rs 14 crores to him for clearing the file relating to procurement of Tatra vehicles which had been pending since 9 July, 2010.

“These act on the part of Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh constitutes offence punishable under section 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act,” it had claimed.

CBI had also said that on September 22, 2010, the decision on the file relating to procurement of Tatra trucks was pending as VK Singh had sought comments of various senior officers on it.

“Therefore, there were cogent reasons for a conspiracy to be hatched to get the file of Tatra trucks cleared from COAS,” it had said.

A case was lodged by CBI against Tejinder Singh on 19 October, 2012 following complaint by VK Singh.

PTI