PUNE: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in separate actions, trapped two army havildars from the Southern Command and a civilian gazetted officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Lohegaon on the charge of demanding and accepting bribes.
The two havildars had taken the original call letter of a candidate, who cleared his Army Ordnance Corps’ examination for multi-tasking staff (MTS) post, on the pretext of early joining formalities and demanded Rs2.5 lakh from him.
The CBI said in a release that the two havildars agreed to collect Rs50,000 as an initial payment and even received Rs30,000 through a UPI payment app. A CBI court on Wednesday remanded the two havildars in police custody for five days.
The Army Southern Command later issued a press release through the defence PRO stating, “The Indian Army continues with its policy of zero tolerance for corruption. On a recent tip-off about likely malpractice in recruitment of Multi Tasking Assistance/Staff, the Indian Army in Southern Command and CBI in joint investigation are inquiring into the possible malpractices by lower level staff. The army has strict rules to deal with such malpractices and is enabling expeditious investigation to ensure punitive action against the culprits.”
In the other case, a civilian gazetted officer of the IAF demanded Rs50,000 and was caught while accepting Rs4,000 from the complainant for considering his mutual transfer request to Dehu Road. He was remanded in two-day police custody. The arrested suspect was produced before the special CBI court, which ordered his remand in police custody for two days.
