Army Recruitment Scam: 17 Army Officers Booked By CBI

The CBI booked 17 Army officers including 5 of Lt Col rank, 2 Majors, a Naib subedar, a sepoy and six private persons in connection with alleged irregularities in the recruitment process for the armed forces through Service Selection Board (SSB).

The probe agency conducted searches at several Army establishments, residential and office premises of several defence officials, Army hospitals and also cantonments at 30 locations in 13 cities, including Kapurthala, Bathinda, Delhi, Kaithal, Palwal, Lucknow, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Vishakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jorhat and Chirango.

The CBI sleuths recovered incriminating documents during the searches and they are being scrutinised, CBI spokesperson R.C. Joshi said.

Those booked were charged with bribery both in the form of cash and online transactions. It is learnt that in some cases, the amount taken was nearly Rs 1 lakh for each candidate.

The senior officers booked by the CBI include Lt Col MVSNA Bhagwan of the Army Air Defence Corps; Lt Col Surender Singh of Service Selection Centre, Kapurthala; Lt Col Y S Chauhan of 6 Mountain Division Ordnance Unit, Bareilly; Lt Col Sukhdev Arora, Joint Director, DG Recruiting, New Delhi; Lt Col Vinay, Group Testing Officer (GTO), Selection Centre South, Bengaluru; and Major Bhavesh Kumar, GTO, Selection Centre North, Kapurthala.

It is being said that Lt Col MVSNA Bhagwan is the mastermind of the recruitment racket. Several lower-ranking Army officials and relatives of the accused officers have also been booked.

The CBI registered a FIR following a complaint from the office of Additional Directorate General, Discipline & Vigilance, Ministry of Defence (Army).

In the complaint it was alleged that an input was received about the alleged involvement of personnel serving in the Army accepting bribes for clearance of review medical exam of temporarily rejected officer candidates at the Base Hospital in New Delhi.

The complaint also stated that Lt Col Bhagwan, who is on study leave in Visakhapatnam at present, and Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh of Base Hospital, Delhi Cantonment, were involved in seeking gratification from potential officer candidates at SSB centres, sources revealed.

According to the complaint, Naib Subedar Kuldeep Singh asked assistance from Lt Col Bhagwan for SSB exams “in lieu for money” and “touted aspiring candidates” to him.

Singh also allegedly accepted money from Havaldar Pawan Kumar for selecting his son in the Service Selection Board. The FIR also cited evidence in the form of financial transactions among the accused and video footage of packages being exchanged.

Bhagwan is also alleged to have accepted “undisclosed amount of cash” for selection of Lt Navjot Kanwar. The Ministry of Defence’s letter also says that the culprits should not be left ‘scot-free’.

The CBI, in the FIR, booked 23 people, including army personnel and a few of their family members. The complaint also mentions six more officers including Major Amit Fagna, who allegedly assisted rejected candidates in clearing the medical board.