New Delhi, August 19; The recording device handed over by fomer Army Chief V.K. Singh, purported to carry a conversation relating to a bribe offer made to him, is malfunctioning and nothing can be retrieved from it, the CBI said on Monday.
Gen. (Retd.) Singh had claimed that a bribe offer of Rs. 14 crore was made to him by a senior retired officer to clear a tranche of 600 sub-standard all terrain trucks.
Quoting a forensic report, sources from the CBI said some noise came out of the device and nothing was audible after which it was sent for examination at the Central Forensic and Scientific Laboratory (CFSL).
Despite trying various techniques, the experts at CFSL could not manage to retrieve any data.
“Maybe it was lying with the CBI for sometime and the data was further corrupted,” the former Army Chief’s counsel Vishwajeet Singh said.
This has almost dashed CBI’s hopes of making any progress in the case and the agency may now approach the courts with a closure report.
The CBI had registered a case on October 19, 2012 after carrying out preliminary enquiry for nearly six months.
Lieutenant Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh was named by the CBI as an accused under Prevention of Corruption Act, as charges were levelled against him by V.K. Singh in his complaint.
Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh denied all charges levelled against him and also filed a defamation case against the former Chief.
Searches were carried out at the Kailash Colony residence of Vectra Chairman Ravinder Rishi, also a Director in Tatra Sipox U.K. which supplied the all-terrain trucks to BEML for giving them to the army, and that of Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh at Safdarjung Enclave in south Delhi, the CBI said.
