Bribery
Representative image. Photo credit - THE HANS INDIA

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked five Army personnel, including a colonel for allegedly accepting bribes from supplier of rations for troops posted in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The CBI also booked a ration supplier from Arunachal Pradesh.

A report published on Thursday by arunachal24.in, quoting officials stated the CBI booked the Army personnel for receiving bribes worth Rs 18 lakh from the ration supplier.

The action has been taken on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Army.

An FIR has been registered by the CBI in this regard.

The FIR has been filed against Colonel Raman Danda, Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Kumar, Subedar Devender Kumar, Havildar Abhay Singh, Subedar Sahuran Sahu and supplier KK Yangfo for criminal conspiracy.

Colonel Raman Danda was serving as the Commanding Officer of the 556 Army Supply Corps and Mahendra Kumar as a platoon commander when the incident took place.

The Army personnel have been booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to the report Danda allegedly misused his official position and received Rs 4.15 lakh from Arunachalee supplier Yangfo through two transactions in the account of Danda’s father.

As per the Army complaint, Mahender Kumar, who was responsible for checking quality of rations, allegedly misused his official position and took Rs 1 lakh as bribe.

While Subedar Devender Kumar allegedly took a bribe of Rs 2.04 lakh, Havildar Abhay Kumar allegedly took Rs 98.000 and Subedar Sahuran Saho received bribe of Rs 7.65 lakh in three transactions from supplier Yangfo.

Yangfo, a contractor from Arunachal’s Tawang, reportedly supplied rations for the Army in between 2015 and 2017.

It has been reported that CBI has already carried out a preliminary probe and during the investigation they found that undue advantage was paid to an entire chain of Army officials and unit representatives involved in checking of quality and quantity of items being supplied by Yangfo.

Following the probe, CBI has registered an FIR against the suspects.

The central investigating agency had registered a similar FIR against Lt Col Amit Sharma and Lt Col Sutikshan Rana, officers of the Army Service Corps, who allegedly received bribes worth Rs 82 lakh between 2012 and 2016 from a supplier of rations in Nagaland, the report stated.