NEW DELHI:Two senior Army officers are under scanner for an alleged corruption scandal in transfer and postings in the Army.
However, the Army has clarified that there is no proof against any of them and as such, no probe has been ordered into the allegation yet. But taking cognizance of the issue, the Defence Ministry is verifying the Army’s proposed promotion board of a Major General, who allegedly paid bribe to be promoted as Lieutenant General.
Another officer is a Lieutenant General rank officer, who is retiring on September 30 and handles transfer and postings of the Army.
Defence sources said a meeting of the Special Promotion Board of the Army was held recently to fill up the vacancy of three Lieutenant Generals, for which about 33 officers were considered. They said a set of names cleared by the Board was sent to the Defence Ministry. However, following a meeting of the Board, a series of complaints against the officer surfaced, many of which were being circulated on the social media as well.
It was found that the Major General rank officer had faced a CBI inquiry a few years ago over allegations of corruption in a project undertaken by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), sources said.
However, the CBI did not find enough evidence for criminal prosecution.
Taking cognizance of the matter, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is himself verifying the authenticity of the complaints.
But the Army has denied receiving any such complaint. “The recommendation came to the Ministry but the Ministry has not (yet) accepted the recommendation,” the sources said.
Once the Promotion Board met, the recommendations would be sent to the Defence Ministry which would perform it own checks and balances, sources said, adding that it was routine for the results to come out after two to three months as it had to go through various levels of scrutiny. The development comes at a time when another senior officer of the Army is facing allegations of graft. Parrikar is likely to decide by Monday whether any formal inquiry needs to be constituted to look into these issues, sources said.