CBI books personnel of armed force, their relatives in Army recruitment scam

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 15

The anti-graft central probe agency CBI on Monday said it has registered a case against five Lieutenant Colonels among 23 others in alleged Army recruitment scam and conducted searches at around 30 locations across the country.

CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said after receiving a complaint from the office of Additional Directorate General, Discipline & Vigilance, the agency has booked 23 people, including 17 Army officials, six private persons and others, on the allegations pertaining to bribery and irregularities in recruitment of officers and other ranks through Service Selection Board (SSB).

The spokesperson said, “Searches were conducted today at 30 places including Base Hospital in Delhi, other Army establishments, civilian areas covering 13 cities, including Kapurthala, Bathinda, Delhi, Kaithal, Palwal, Lucknow, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jorhat and Chirang.”

He also said the searches led to recovery of several incriminating documents and the documents so recovered during searches are being scrutinised by the CBI officials.

Those Lieutenant Colonels against whom the case has been registered and their names mentioned in the CBI FIR include MVSNA Bhagwan, Surender Singh, Sukhdev Arora, Vinay and Navjot Singh Kanwar. The other Army personnel, who have been named in the FIR, are Major Bhavesh Kumar, Major Amit Fagna, Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh, Havildar Pawan Kumar, Havildar Rajesh Kumar, Havildar Harpal Singh, Naik Parwinder Jeet Singh, Sepoy Rohit Kanwar, Cadet Hemant Dagar and Cadet Inderjeet.

The CBI in its FIR has also named relatives of the Army officers as private persons and they included Pragati Singh, Devyanim wife of Major Bhavesh Kumar, Surender Singh, the father of Bhavesh Kumar, Usha Kumawat, the mother of Bhavesh Kumar, and Bhupender Bajaj, the brother-in-law of Lieutenant Colonel Surender Singh.