We always boast our Indian Army and feel proud over it. No doubt, they are serving our nation by securing borders from our enemies; however there is a dark side too in the force. Many Army officers are caught in corruption time and again for various reasons. Several Indian soldiers pay bribe during recruitment process, and sad thing is that 90 per cent of them are fit in every criteria. It becomes a trend that you have to contact some agent who will settle everything. A number of agents have contact with officers in physical and medical process and in most of cases these are ex-army personnel. Sometime, they fix meeting with officers so when they undergo medical and physical examination officers identify them and clear them. Sometime, agent gives particular colour underwear to their candidates and they inform the officers that candidate wearing x- coloured underwear is known to him.
After second war between India and Pakistan, Indian youth and their parents were afraid and very few people wanted to join Indian Army in 70’s. Rural people thought, it’s better to work in field than joining army. I know, many who resigned from Indian Army after serving few years because they were worried about war. Anyhow, with lucrative offers and hype many youth again became attracted towards Defence forces. However, many of them come here with different motives, some of them really serve nation but some show their traits by getting engaged in corrupt practices.
Recently, a Lieutenant Colonel in the army has been arrested for manipulating postings of officers for money. Lt Colonel Ranganathan Suvramani Moni has been accused of accepting bribes to arrange transfers at the army headquarters, along with a middleman, Gaurav Kohli, who has also been arrested. CBI is investigating how army officers were ready to pay lakhs of rupees to get a posting of their choice. The case, brought to light when the CBI filed an FIR on Thursday, unearthed a corruption operation that could implicate a number of senior officers, including a brigadier.
The deal is said to have been brokered by a civilian Gaurav Kohli and another army officer Purushottam. Kohli, Purushottam, Moni and Subhas are named in the CBI first-investigation report. Moni was caught accepting Rs. 2 lakh amount as a bribe. In addition to a deal for the transfer of Subhas, the Lt Col is also accused of being involved in efforts to manipulate the posting of Hyderabad-based officer DSRK Reddy. Purushottam is said to have put Subhas and Reddy in touch with Kohli, who is a close acquaintance of a number of senior army officers. Kohli in turn approached Moni, who is posted in the army department that deals with transfers. CBI investigators believe Moni was in touch with an officer senior to him, brigadier SK Grover, to ensure the manipulated transfers. The bribe was routed through hawala operators, who took the money from Subhas to Kohli.
In 2015, appointments of Group C and Group D employees in the Dehradun-based Indian Military Academy (IMA), the CBI then registered two cases against several people, including three Lieutenant Colonel-rank officers. The officers whose names figured in the list are Lt. Col. Akhilesh Mishra, the then MTO at IMA, Lt. Col. Jagdish Vishnoi, the then Catering Officer at IMA and Ambarish Tiwari, the then Admin Officer in Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC). They face charges for issuing fake experience certificates to candidates. Other accused include members of the selection board for Group C and erstwhile Group D posts and several selected candidates under these categories. The charge against the three Army officers is that they issued fake experience certificates to candidates who were finally selected by the recruitment boards.
Corruption is prevailing in recruitment and education system. The children of highly ranked personnel in Defence service easily pass NDA to get recruited in Army, Air Force and Navy. Their call letter is just a few calls away. In defence canteens, the canteen manager accept bribe from the contractors to make their product brand available in canteen. They receive lot of gifts and money from under the table. So, if you want your brand biscuits to be available in canteen, go bribe the manager.
Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) is a school run by government for the children of defence personnel. If the entire seat in the class are not filled, then civilians are allowed to take admission in class on first come first served basis. With low fees and high quality of education in these KVs, civilians want their children to study in these central government run school, if it is there in their city. Hence, principal ends up giving admission on the basis of “highest bidder gets a seat”.
India Army has always held a great respect in the heart of Indians and it is a proud moment for any Indian to serve in the Army. However, recently few things came to light which highlighted how corruption has found inroads in to Indian Army. Today, Indian Army, which was once believed as one of the most corruption free organisation in India, is becoming the victim of few top level corrupt army officers in the force.
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