The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a corruption and criminal conspiracy case against 17 Indian Army personnel, including five Lieutenant Colonels and two Major-ranked officers apart from six others, in a recruitment scam at several Service Selection Board (SSB) Centres.
The agency also carried out searches at a number of locations in connection with the case, they said. MCSNA Bhagwan of the Army Air Defence Corps, the alleged mastermind of the recruitment racket, is among those booked, they said.
Searches were conducted today at 30 places including Base Hospital, Cantonment, other Army establishments, civilian areas in Kapurthala, Bhathinda, Delhi, Kaithal, Palwal, Lucknow, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Vishakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jorhat and Chirangon, it further added.
The CBI has acted on a complaint from Brigadier (Vigilance) V K Purohit alleging that on February 28 an input was received about the alleged involvement of serving personnel in accepting a bribe for clearance of review medical exam of temporarily rejected officer candidates at the Base Hospital in New Delhi.
The CBI has named Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh, posted at Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment, lt Colonel MVSNA Bhagwan, posted at Army Air Defence Corps (on leave) Vishakhapatnam, Major Bhavesh Kumar, Group Testing Officer, 31 SSB Selection Centre North, Kapurthala, lt Colonel Singh, posted at 31 SSB Kapurthala, lt Colonel YS Chauhan, 6 Mountain Division Ordinance Unit, Bareilly, lt Colonel Sukhdev Arora, Joint Director, DG Rect., Directorate General Recruiting, New Delhi, lt Colonel Vinay, GTO Selection Centre, South Bengaluru, lt Navjot Singh Kanwar, 12 Grenadiers/ 21 Mountain Division, Guwahati Assam, Cadet Hemant Dagar, SSC (Tech) 53, OTA Chennai, Cadet Indrajeet, NCC (SPl) Entry 47, OTA Chennai, Havildar Pawan Kumar, Armny Service Corps Centre, Bengaluru, and several others.
Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has also clearly told his commanders that there would be zero tolerance towards cases of financial wrongdoings and moral turpitude.
