The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has unearthed a major Army recruitment scam and has booked six Lt Col-ranked officers for allegedly demanding bribes and facilitating bribery, according to ThePrint report.
The central agency as booked 23 Army personnel and civilians, including relatives of officers over their role in the Army recruitment scam. According to the investigative agency, MCSNA Bhagwan of the Army Air Defence Corps, is the alleged mastermind of the recruitment racket.
The CBI sprung into action after it received a complaint from Brigadier (Vigilance) V K Purohit. According to the complaint, a section of the serving personnel were allegedly involved in accepting bribe for clearance of review medical exam of temporarily rejected officer candidates at the Base Hospital in New Delhi.
The complaint further stated that Lt Col Bhagwan and Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh were also involved in seeking gratification from potential officer candidates at SSB centres, reports ThePrint.
It is being reported that the complaint states that Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh sought help from Lt Col Bhagwan for SSB exams “in lieu for money” and “touted aspiring candidates” to him. Lt Col Bhagwan is currently on a study leave.
Lt Col MVSNA Bhagwan of the Army Air Defence Corps; Lt Col Surender Singh of Service Selection Centre, Kapurthala; Lt Col Y S Chauhan of 6 Mountain Division Ordnance Unit, Bareilly; Lt Col Sukhdev Arora, Joint Director, DG Recruiting, New Delhi; Lt Col Vinay, Group Testing Officer (GTO), Selection Centre South, Bengaluru; and Major Bhavesh Kumar, GTO, Selection Centre North, Kapurthala, are all charged with corruption by the CBI after the latter carried out search operations at 30 locations across India on Monday.
A CBI spokesperson said, “Searches were conducted today at 30 places including Base Hospital, Cantonment, other Army establishments, civilian areas covering 13 cities, viz. Kapurthala, Bathinda, Delhi, Kaithal, Palwal, Lucknow, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jorhat and Chirangon, which led to recovery of several incriminating documents. The documents so recovered during searches are being scrutinized.”
The Army in a statement said, “Indian Army has zero tolerance towards corrupt practices in the recruitment process for selection of suitable candidates for Indian Army. Based on a proactive operation by Army intelligence agencies, a case of possible malpractice in selection procedures at a Services Selection Centre has come to light. Since the scope of investigation involves multiple agencies including civil entities, Indian Army has decided to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.”