Graft: CBI grills vectra chief, ex-army officer

The CBI on Monday grilled Lieutenant General (retired) Tejinder Singh and Vectra chairman Ravi Rishi in connection with a probe into the acquisition of 1,676 high-mobility Tatra vehicles for the army.

The CBI on Monday grilled Lieutenant General (retired) Tejinder Singh and Vectra chairman Ravi Rishi in connection with a probe into the acquisition of 1,676 high-mobility Tatra vehicles for the army.

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Former army chief VK Singh had alleged that the retired army officer made a bribe offer to him on September 22, 2010, for clearing the arms deal.

On Saturday, the CBI registered a case against Tejinder under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly offering the bribe on behalf of Rishi.

The CBI suspects that Tejinder had allegedly met the ex-army chief with a R14-crore bribe offer on a day when the proposal for the purchase of the vehicles was pending with the latter. Rishi is the director of a private firm that supplied Tatra trucks to the army via Bharat Earth Movers, a PSU.

A CBI source said both Tejinder and Rishi denied the allegations levelled against them. The CBI also interrogated two alleged associates of Rishi — both Delhi-based businessmen — and two of his employees.

“We questioned the accused to establish the sequence of events, and find out their roles in the conspiracy. We will verify if there was a direct link between Rishi and the ex-army officer,” said the source.