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Bribe offer shocked me out of wits: Army chief
Monday March 26, 2012 06:29:01 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi:
Indian
Army Chief Gen V.K. Singh, in a televised interview telecast
Monday, said the 'bribe offer' had left him 'dumbfounded' and he
could not lodge a police complaint against the briber because it
was an 'indirect method'.
'If a person who has just retired, a few days ago, and tells you
while talking on different issues that you will get this thing and
when you have not heard something like this, it will leave you
dumbfounded. You won't understand what this person is saying. And
that is what happened,' Singh said in a recorded interview to
Chauthi Duniya, an internet news portal.
Asked why he didn't lodge a police complaint which he could have
done because Military Police was always around, the army chief
said: 'You may be right that I should have complained against him.
But at that time the way (the bribe was offered), for a while I
could not understand what he was saying. It was not like he was
giving me bribe in my hand.
'He was telling me that if you clear this file you will get this
much of the amount, everybody takes it, what is your problem. In a
way it was an indirect method of saying. And that is why he could
not be arrested.'
The general said he told the former officer to leave his room and
shared the incident with Defence Minister A.K. Antony.
'I went and told the defence minister that this is the situation.
He beat his forehead and told me that we should keep these people
out,' said the chief who is to retire May 31.
The sensational revelation by the army chief was first reported by
The Hindu newspaper following which Antony ordered a Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the allegations that he
was offered a bribe of Rs.14 crore (Rs. 140 million).
Defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar told IANS here that the
minister gave the orders after seeing reports of the army chief's
claim in this regard.
'Just imagine, these men had the gumption to walk up to me and
tell me that if i cleared the tranche, he would give me Rs. 14
crore. He was offering a bribe to me,' the army chief told The
Hindu.
The newspaper said the lobbyist offered him the bribe in order to
have a tranche of 600 substandard vehicles of a particular make
cleared for purchase.
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