Tag Archives: Neeraj Chauhan

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CBI takes Tatra trucks probe to foreign shores

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Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | Apr 26, 2012, 02.43AM IST

NEW DELHI: The CBI’s probe into the Tatra scam is spreading internationally, with the agency finding clues of a far more sophisticated web of money transfers than what was presumed until now. The agency is set to issue Letter Rogatories (LRs) to Hong Kong and Singapore, where it believes NRI businessman Ravi Rishi, the key figure behind Tatra trucks’ supply to the Indian Army, had complex financial operations, and some of which could be linked to the Tatra contract.

Army chief General V K Singh in his statement to the CBI had claimed that he was offered Rs 14 crore by Lt Gen Tejinder Singh on behalf of Rishi, and he was told that officers before him have collected similar bribes. It is possible, sources admit, that Rishi could have been transferring money across secretive tax havens to pay off some of his Indian contacts. CBI has already issued LRs to Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK and Liechtenstein, seeking details of Rishi’s companies and trusts. Sources said Rishi has been operating companies in both Hong Kong and Singapore for the past several years, and may have been transferring money from these countries to tax havens and other destinations.

ToI has already reported that he operated at least one trust in Liechtenstein since 1986, and this trust had been controlling at least one of his Hong Kong firms.

Besides, the CBI has established that the “supply of Tatra trucks to the Army was very irregular since 1997” and that “indigenization process of the Tatra was very slow”, said sources, indicating that the noose may be tightening around some BEML officials.

According to sources, BEML chief V R S Natarajan failed to give satisfactory response on both the counts during his questioning by the CBI. On Wednesday, BEML’s director (finance), J B Diwale, was questioned for several hours. The CBI is now certain, based on documents from the UK, that Tatra Sipox was just an “agent” for the manufacturing company. Indian military procurement rules do not permit dealings with agents.

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Background check on Tejinder by CBI

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Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | Apr 25, 2012, 05.15AM IST

NEW DELHI: Probing the Tatra trucks procurement scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation is carrying out a background check on Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh as it prepares to question him later this week. The agency, sources said, has asked the defence ministry to provide all details related to Lt Gen Singh – files, his meetings and people who frequently met him. Sources said the agency was trying to establish Vectra chief Ravi Rishi’s link with Lt Gen Singh.

“To establish the bribery offer, we have to find out Lt Gen Tejinder Singh’s link with Vectra group. We will check files of MoD to know about people who visited him and documents signed by him when he was serving in the Army,” a top CBI officer said. The agency is also expected to convert the preliminary enquiry into the alleged bribery offer to Army chief General V K Singh into a regular case soon.

The agency has, meanwhile, collected around 64 files from Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) to probe the Tatra scam. These files have details of proposals, tenders papers, technical examination documents, suppliers, supply orders and payments related to procurement of Tatra trucks since 1997 in the Indian Army. To understand these documents, two colonel rank officers are helping the CBI in the probe.

The agency is also looking at the “quid pro quo” angle in the Tatra procurement deal. It is probing whether somebody in the defence ministry or Army benefitted all these years for making sure that Tatra trucks were procured by BEML through Tatra Sipox (UK) only.

Meanwhile, the CBI on Tuesday again questioned Vectra executive Anil Mansaramani at its headquarters while another Vectra employee was quizzed in Mumbai. The Vectra employees are being confronted with several documents picked up from the defence ministry and BEML.

The Army chief has provided several documents to the agency and has assured that he would give more evidence. Gen Singh had claimed that Lt Gen Tejinder Singh had offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore in his office on September 22, 2010 for clearing a tranche of sub-standard Tatra trucks. The agency has recorded the chief’s statement.

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Lt Gen Tejinder visited Army chief on Sept 22: Register

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Neeraj Chauhan, TNN Apr 23, 2012, 02.49AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing Army chief General V K Singh’s claim that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe by Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh, has found that the “visitor’s register” of South Block has an entry showing that Lt Gen Tejinder Singh had visited the Army chief’s office on September 22, 2010.

The visitor’s entry in the register, which was taken by the CBI on Friday from South Block, has been signed by Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh and it mentions “official to meet” as Gen V K Singh.
A senior CBI officer said this was a “major evidence” to show that Lt Gen Tejinder Singh was in the Army chief’s office that day but what transpired inside the room, the alleged bribery offer, is yet to be proved. The Army chief assured CBI officials in his meeting on Friday that he would provide more evidence soon.

A CBI team had recorded Gen V K Singh’s statement in two rounds on Friday and picked up the ‘visitor’s register’. Apart from the register, the agency has also collected several documents provided by the Army chief, which reportedly include documents related to the Tatra deal and communications between the defence ministry and BEML.

Gen V K Singh had earlier this month given a written complaint to the CBI alleging that Lt Gen Tejinder Singh had come to his office on September 22, 2010 and had offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore on behalf of Vectra group chairman Ravi Rishi to clear a deal of sub-standard Tatra trucks for the Indian Army. Sources said on that day, Gen V K Singh had asked his staff to “escort him (Lt Gen Tejinder Singh) out of his office” and reportedly asked Lt Gen Tejinder Singh “not to come again”.

Refuting the allegations, Lt Gen Tejinder Singh claimed in an interview that “he used to meet Gen V K Singh frequently for professional work and that he had gone to his (Gen V K Singh’s) office in September 2010 for some personal work”. He has also filed a defamation suit against the Army chief.

The agency is probing a preliminary enquiry into the alleged bribery offer and is expected to convert it into a regular case soon. Agency sources said they might question Lt Gen Tejinder Singh next week.

The agency has also collected some evidence in its probe in the Tatra procurement scam. Gen V K Singh too has provided important documents to the agency. The CBI has already approached Interpol to get details of companies related to Ravi Rishi in at least four countries- Czech Republic, Slovakia, UK and Liechtenstein.

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Did Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh have a mole in Gen VK singh’s office?

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Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | Apr 24, 2012, 01.36AM IST

NEW DELHI: Army chief General V K Singh has told CBI officials that the day Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh came to visit him in his South Block office (September 22, 2010) and made a bribery offer of Rs 14 crore, the file relating to purchase of Tatra trucks was lying on his table.

Sources said the agency is probing the likelihood of some “black sheep” in Army Headquarters or the Army chief’s office tipping off Lt Gen Tejinder Singh that the Tatra file was awaiting Gen Singh’s clearance and whether that prompted the retired lieutenant general to pay the chief a visit.

The CBI, which is likely to question Lt Gen Singh this week, is also poring over his call records to ascertain if someone called him on that day to inform him about the Tatra file. Agency sources said the call records would also prove if Lt Gen Singh was in touch with Vectra chief Ravi Rishi either before or after his meeting with the Army chief.

Gen Singh has also told CBI officials that when he saw the number of trucks to be procured mentioned on the Tatra file, he called up all his commands to know about their requirement and “the requirement of Army commands was way less than what was mentioned on the file”. CBI sources believe a section in the Army Headquarters which was lobbying for Tatra trucks could have facilitated the file’s movement up to the chief’s office.

After seeing such a large number of Tatra trucks mentioned in the file, the Army chief had cancelled the deal, sources said. CBI officials refused to give details of the requirement mentioned on the file. “The number of trucks required mentioned on file were much higher than the actual requirement by all the commands of the Army,” said a top source.

These facts were given by Gen Singh to a CBI team on Friday when it recorded his statement. The agency has already found the record of Lt Gen Tejinder Singh’s visit on that day from the visitor’s register. The Army chief has also provided several documents, which suggest that Tatra trucks were wrongly favoured.

The Army chief has assured CBI of providing more evidence soon.

In another development, after fresh revelations of Rishi and his family members being the beneficiaries of Hemang Foundation, a trust based in Liechtenstein which fully controls Tatra Sipox (UK), the CBI on Monday again questioned Rishi at its headquarters. The agency also quizzed Vectra group executive Anil Mansaramani.

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Tatra deal: CBI raids houses of two retired Army officers

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Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | Apr 19, 2012, 03.55AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation raided residences of two retired Army officers in connection with the Tatra-Vectra deal while investigators are also pursuing leads pointing to a nexus between Vectra head Ravi Rishi and the top brass of Indian public sector firm BEML.

The CBI on Wednesday carried out raids at the residences of Brigadier (retd) P C Das in Vasant Kunj and Colonel (retd) Anil Dutta in Noida. Das was also questioned at the CBI headquarters while the residence of a Vectra executive Anil Mansaramani at Noida was also searched.

CBI sources said they suspect Das and Dutta as having worked as conduits for Vectra head Rishi who is a London-based businessman. The agency feels that the two retired officers were liasioning for Vectra that is a crucial link in supply of Tatra trucks to the Army that is now under a graft cloud.

CBI hopes to make more progress when Army chief Gen V K Singh meets investigators after April 19 and his statement is recorded. The chief had set the cat among the pigeons by alleging that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe for the “underperforming” vehicles.

The agency questioned BEML chairman V R S Natarajan for almost six hours on Wednesday and sources said the probe was at a delicate stage as definite leads have emerged regarding BEML and Rishi in the Tatra trucks procurement process.

CBI reportedly asked Natarajan if he tried to verify, when BEML signed a contract with Tatra Sipox (UK), if any of the parts for making Tatra trucks were available with another company in India, said sources. Natarajan was also asked if BEML tried to find out the nature of Tatra Sipox (UK) contracts with other countries on supplies.

Natarajan and Rishi have refuted the allegations of any wrong doing.

Vectra, which has controlling stake in Tatra Sipox UK, and is at the centre of CBI investigations into alleged irregularities in the supply of all terrain vehicle components to the public sector BEML which assembles and supplies these vehicles to the Army. Along with Natarajan, Rishi was questioned for the ninth time on Wednesday.

It was in the light of information provided by Natarajan and Rishi, the agency found it necessary to search residences of the retired Army officials and the Vectra employee to try and gather documents that could help the agency. sources said. The CBI is looking for a link between Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh – who the army chief claims offered him a bribe — with Rishi through the two retired army officers.