Army Chief didn't complain, was powerless to act: Antony

Defence Minister AK Antony said he had been informed about the Army Chief being offered a bribe last year, but despite asking him to, General VK Singh had said he did not want to pursue the matter further and never sent a formal complaint.

“More than a year ago, exact date they (the army) will know. During one of the service chief meetings the Army Chief told me about this meeting. Singh told me that one general, I think Tejinder Singh, offered him a bribe,” Antony told the Rajya Sabha today.

“I was shocked. I said take action. But he (General VK Singh) told me I don’t want to pursue it,” he said, adding that the General has not sent a written complaint till date.

The Minister said he was powerless to act since he had not received a formal complaint from the armed forces chief.

“When the (verbal) complaint came I should have acted, but as a Minister I cannot ask. Every day so many people are coming to me and complaining,” Antony told the Rajya Sabha causing uproar among the Opposition over his initial inaction.

As per procedure, if a complaint was sent it would have been forwarded to the Ministry of Defence, who would send it on to the concerned armed force to conduct a probe and they would file a report, the Defence Minister said.

“But here I did not get a written complaint at any stage,”  Antony said.

However, after reading the news reports yesterday, he said that he had asked the defence ministry to order a probe into the matter which was now being carried out by the CBI.

The Defence Minister emphasised that he had tried to ensure complete transparency in the procurement process for the armed forces and had told officials that he was prepared to cancel procurements if allegations of corruption arose.

“I acted on my judgement. If I am wrong punish me, but I have done my best,” he told the Rajya Sabha.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the government had to take take pro-active measures to ensure an end to corruption in the armed forces and that the Defence Minister should have acted earlier

“It is for the Defence Minister to make the difference between a substantive charge or a frivolous charge,” he said, adding that the procurement policies for the defence forces should not be affected due to allegations of corruption.

Antony clarified that the procurement procedures had not been affected.

The Army Chief had alleged in an interview that he had been offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore for approving a contract but had not accepted it. Singh said in an interview that he did not realise that he was being offered a bribe and had informed the Defence Minister of the incident.

Lt General (retired) Tejinder Singh had been accused of offering a bribe to  General VK Singh to support the approval of a contract to obtain all-weather trucks for the army. However, the former army official has denied the charges and said that he would initiate legal action against those who had accused him.