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Tatra scam: CBI searches homes of 2 ex-Army officers

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday conducted search operations at the homes of two former Army officers in Delhi and Noida and recovered key documents related to its probe into alleged irregularities in the procurement of Tatra trucks, sources said.

CBI sources said searches were also being conducted at the residence of an official of the Britain-based Vectra group that supplies the all-terrain heavy-duty Tatra trucks to the Indian Army through defence public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML).

The sources said raids were conducted at the homes of Brig (retd) P.C. Das in Delhi and Col (retd) Anil Datta in Noida. Searches were also conducted at the home of Vectra employee Anil Mansaramani.

The sources said three teams of CBI sleuths conducted the searches that began early on Wednesday morning. Some crucial documents expected to help in investigating the scam-tainted truck deal have been found, the sources claimed.

The CBI search operations come a day after the agency questioned three people, including former BEML director V Mohan, the company's present chief V. R. S. Natarajan and Vectra group chief Ravinder Rishi, in connection with alleged lapses in the supply of Tatra trucks.

Tatra is a Czech manufacturer and owned by Britain's Vectra that supplies truck parts to BEML.

BEML assembles the trucks and sells them off to the Army. Some 7,000 Tatra trucks have been bought by the Army since 1986.

Army Chief Gen. V. K. Singh blew the lid off the alleged scam after he alleged in March that he'd been offered a Rs 14-crore bribe to clear a deal for supplying sub-standard Tatra trucks.

The Army in a March 5 press release took the names of Tatra and BEML, alleging that Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh had offered a bribe on behalf of Tatra and Vectra.

The agency was probing why BEML decided to procure Tatra parts from Tatra Sipox (Britain), a private company, from 1997 when it was doing so through Omnipol (a state-owned unit in Czech Republic) since 1986.

The sources said CBI was trying to find out why BEML officials signed an agreement with Tatra Sipox (Britain) in a hurried manner on June 14, 1997, in Bangalore, three days after they had a meeting with the firm and its associate companies' officials in Slovakia.

One more company, Venus Projects Ltd., in which Rishi allegedly has some stakes, was under the CBI scanner as he allegedly used it for purchasing spare parts for Tatra trucks, they said. — PTI

Agni V to be test-fired today

Balasore: India is set to join an elite club of nations possessing the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) as nuclear capable Agni-V missile is due to be launched from the Wheeler Island off the Orissa Coast on Wednesday.

Designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the three-stage missile has a strike range of 5,000 km.
Indigenously developed nuclear capable 'Agni-V' ballistic missile is scheduled to be launched from a mobile launcher.

Once validated and inducted into the armed forces after several more tests couple of years down the line, Agni-V will be India's longest-range missile which can carry a nuclear warhead.

Range preparation for the maiden test of Agni-V ballistic missile has been completed and full precaution is being taken to ensure its flawless launch.

Factory collapse: Teenager rescued after 55 hrs

Jalandhar: A teenage boy was pulled out from the debris of the collapsed blanket factory in Jalandhar on Wednesday, nearly 55 hours after the four-storey building had been flattened, police said. Many more people could still be trapped, officials said as rescue efforts continued for the third day.

Sandeep, 17, a worker in the Shital Fibres factory was pulled out by rescue teams early Wednesday. According to authorities, the death toll has reached 10 and could rise with many more still under the debris of the factory in Focal Point area in Jalandhar, about 150 km from Jalandhar.

Rescuers and police said that the young man had no major injuries despite being buried under heaps of concrete and iron since Sunday midnight.