Yet another unholy nexus between arms consultants and defence officials stands exposed. Defence intermediary Subi Mally, currently on bail, has revealed that a scientist with a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab in Chennai had accepted a bribe from her.
Subi’s in-camera confession statement, a copy of which is with Express, reveals that Solomon, a scientist with the DRDO’s Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) was actively involved in a deal with AMW-MGM Forgings, Mysore.
“AMW-MGM has got orders for Arjun road wheels and Arjun wraps through the CVRDE, under the supervision of Dr Solomon. He used to visit Mysore very often in this connection. During one of his visits, Solomon demanded `1,50,000, which I gave.”
Subi was arrested by the CBI after it was found that she was mediating to swing orders for battle tank parts in favour of the Steel and Industrial Forgings Ltd (SIFL) in Thrissur and AMW-MGM Forgings in Mysore and ordnance factories in Avadi and Hyderabad. Subi said she got the phone number of SIFL senior manager A Valsan from Solomon. Orders for some of the products for AMW and SIFL were procured through her Mumbai-based company, Subhishi Impex. However, CBI officials told Express that there were no inquiry against the scientist as the deal in question was not linked with the present case.
In November, Valsan visited Subi’s office and collected `8 lakh from her for obtaining the order for road wheel arm. Valsan had asked Subi to send an email to SIFL, mentioning her consultancy charges as 15 per cent. After the board meeting, this would be reduced to 12 per cent, she was told. By the end of January, he informed Subi that the amount to be quoted was `13,450. Subi told AMW to quote `14,000 in the tender. The tender was floated and 60 per cent of the quantity was awarded to SIFL and the rest to AMW in February.
Subi visited the Medak factory along with Ajith Rai, who deals in rubber products used in the automobile industry and defence sector, and paid `3 lakh in March second week.
