NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a regular case against former Director General of Coast Guard K Natrajan following a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) into alleged tampering of Annual Confidential Report (ACR) dossiers of senior officers in the force, officials said.
The CBI had instituted a PE in the case in April last year on the basis of a reference sent to it by the Ministry of Defence highlighting alleged manipulations of the confidential personal records of senior officers.
During the course of PE for nearly 10 months, the CBI found “instances of alteration" in the ACR dossiers of many officers while ‘Non-Initiation Certificates (NICs)’ of a few of the officers were found missing.
In the FIR, a copy of which is with TNIE, the CBI alleged: “It has been further revealed that the Non-Initiation Certificate (NIC) found to be not in order as they are not in congruence with the transfer and posting profile of the concerned officer and initiating officer. NICs have been submitted three to four years after the passing of the reporting period.”
The issue first came to light when Coast Guard Inspector General Rakesh Pal sent a representation to the defence secretary in this regard on June 7, 2021. He had raised the issue of an alleged deliberate reduction in the numerical assessment of his ACRs and dossiers to deprive him of his next possible promotion to the rank of ADG in the forthcoming DPC in 2019.
The Ministry of Defence had then constituted a fact-finding committee comprising Joint Secretary (Armed Forces) and Joint Secretary (BRO and Cer) to examine the ACRs of the past seven years - from 2014 onwards - of Inspector Generals/Additional Director Generals under consideration of promotion to ADG since September 2019 to ascertain instances of any alteration.
The CBI in its PE found the grading for the years 2014 and 2015 of two officers were enhanced whereas those of Rakesh Pal were downgraded.
“As a result, Rakesh Pal was placed at Serial number 3 below the other two officers and was not promoted by DPC during September 2019,” it said.
The CBI also alleged that the handing over and taking over memo dated June 30, 2019, for ACR and DPC files, Director General Rajender Singh handed over all ACR dossiers to K Natarajan, the then DG. At this point of time, “no issue of any alteration and tampering of such records was observed”.