CBI books 5 Army officers for corruption
New Delhi, Jan 2 : The CBI has booked five Army personnel, including a colonel, for allegedly receiving bribes worth Rs 18 lakh from a supplier of rations for troops posted in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, officials said Wednesday.
This is the second case in the recent past when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against army officers for corruption in supplies.
In the latest case, the CBI has registered an FIR against Colonel Raman Dahda, Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Kumar, Subedar Devender Kumar, Havildar Abhay Singh, Subedar Sahuran Sahu and supplier K K Yangfo for criminal conspiracy.
Dahda was the then Commanding Officer of the 556 Army Supply Corps and Mahendra Kumar a platoon commander.
They have been also booked under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It is alleged that the officers received Rs 18 lakh in cash from civilian contractors in regard to procurement of fresh and dry rations for troops deployed in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The action was taken on the basis of a complaint from the Army.
It is alleged that Dahda misused his official position and received Rs 4.15 lakh from supplier Yangfo through two transactions in the account Dahda's father.
According to the complaint, Mahender Kumar, who was responsible for quality check, misused his official position and took Rs 1 lakh as bribe.
Subedar Devender Kumar allegedly took a bribe of Rs 2.04 lakh, Havildar Abhay Kumar Rs 98,000 and Subedar Sahuran Saho Rs 7.65 lakh in three transactions from Yangfo.
Yangfo, a civilian contractor in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang, supplied ration for the Army between 2015 and 2017.
The CBI carried out a preliminary inquiry which revealed that undue advantage was paid to an entire chain of officials and unit representatives involved in checking of quality and quantity of items being supplied by Yangfo.
Following the inquiry the agency has registered an FIR against the suspects.
The agency had registered a similar FIR against Lt Col Amit Sharma and Lt Col Sutikshan Rana, officers of the Army Service Corps, who allegedly received bribes worth Rs 82 lakh between 2012 and 2016 from a supplier of ration in Nagaland.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
