The agency is in the last leg of probe in the case and is expected to finalize it by May-end, said sources.
CBI, which has been probing the case for nearly two years now, decided to record the statements of Antony and Nair so that a final decision on whether to close the case or file a charge-sheet is taken at the earliest. "Yes, we recorded the statements of the defence minister and former principal secretary in the PMO as witnesses in the case," CBI director Ranjit Sinha said.
The former Army chief had alleged that Tejinder Singh had offered him Rs 14 crore in bribe to clear an order of over 1,600 Tatra trucks to be supplied by public sector undertaking BEML. The retired lieutenant general has denied V K Singh's allegation.
The defence ministry had ordered a CBI inquiry to probe the charges levelled by the former Army chief after which a case was registered in October 2012. The former Army chief, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Ghaziabad on a BJP ticket, had said in his complaint that he had informed the defence minister after the purported bribe offer was made by the retired lieutenant general on September 22, 2010.
Nair was questioned by CBI as the former Army chief had alleged that he was opposed to scrapping the Tatra deal, CBI said. The audio tapes, supposed to have a recording of the purported conversation between the former Army chief and Lt Gen Singh, were of no use as only noise was heard in them, it said.
Attempts to retrieve any voice through forensic means did not yield any results, it said. The tapes were submitted to CBI by V K Singh.
CBI has looked into links between Tejinder Singh and Tatra owner Ravi Rishi but have not been able to establish any substantial lead, CBI said.
No comments:
Post a Comment