NEW DELHI / BANGALORE: The CBI conducted simultaneous raids on the offices and residences of a few officials of Bangalore-based public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) on Wednesday. As part of an ongoing investigation, the agency seized various documents and computer hard discs related to procurement of Tatra trucks, over 6,500 units of which have been procured through BEML since 1986.
There is a strong likelihood of BEML chairman and managing director V R S Natrajan being questioned by the CBI this week in connection with the procurement of the trucks for the Army.
The investigating agency is likely to probe why BEML procured completely knocked down (CKD) kits of trucks from Tatra Sipox and Vectra, both companies based in the UK, when they could have been procured from Tatra directly, which is based in the Czech Republic. Defence procurement rules state that any product must be procured from the manufacturer directly.