India's major defence scams

New Delhi: The Indian Armed Forces are known the world over for their honesty, integrity and professionalism. However, due to the booming and fast growing economy, the over Rs one crore per year sky-rocketing pay scales in the corporate sector coupled with the fat-perquisites-sans-accountability of politicians and bureaucrats, the bug to-get-rich-quick has also affected some of the Armed Forces officers. Basically, the Forces are not directly involved in the procurement of high-cost modern arms, equipment, aircrafts and naval frigates. They only carry out the user's trial and recommend a particular arm or equipment. The purchases are directly carried out by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Here we try to list some of the defence scams that rocked India since Independence:1. Jeeps scamThe history of corruption in post independent India begins with the Jeep Scandal in 1948,when a transaction concerning purchase of jeeps for the army needed for Kashmir operations was entered into by V.K Krishna Menon, the then High Commissioner for India in London with a foreign firm without observing normal procedure. India required around 4603 jeeps, around 1500 jeeps were ordered. For a full nine months jeeps didn't arrive. In the year 1949, 155 jeeps reached Madras Bandargah. That too of poor quality. Soon after on February 3,1956 Krishna Menon was inducted into Nehru's cabinet.2. Westland helicopter scamThe contract was signed on in 2010 for nearly 560 million euros or over 3600 crores.Finmeccanica subsidiary Augusta Westland signed the deal with the Indian Air Force in 2010.Last year Italian Agency started to investigate about the corruption. Later it was revealed that helicopter manufacturer Augusta Westland paid a commission of over Rs 350 crore to a Switzerland-based consultant for a deal to sell 12 VVIP choppers to India.The head of the company has been arrested in Milan in this connection.3. HDW submarine scamHDW commissions scam was found in 1987 and in this scam, HDW submarine company had given Rs. 20 crores as commissions. So this company was blocked. The case was registered by V P Singh government in March 1990.Singh, who as defence minister in Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the investigation into the case after he received a telegraphic message from the then Indian ambassador in Germany about payment of seven per cent commission to some middlemen, had resigned from the government after sharp differences with Gandhi on the issue. The case was closed in 2005.4. Bofors scamThis scandal is also known as the hallmark of Indian Corruption. This was a most important corruption during the 1980‘s where the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and quite a few others which also includes a powerful NRI family named the Hindujas were accused of receiving bribe from Bofors AB for engaging a proposal to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was so worse that it led to the crush of Gandhi's ruling in the Indian national Congress party. It was hypnotized that the level of the scandal was tuned to be about Rs. 400 million.The middle man who was associated with this scandal was an Italian businessman named Ottavio Quattrocchi and who also represented the petrochemicals firm, Snamprogetti.Quattrocchi was very intimate to the family and emerged as a influential broker in the 1980‘s between big business and the Government of India.Despite the controversy, the Bofor gun was used extensively during the Kargil War with Pakistan and gave India ‘an edge' over Pakistan according to battlefield comrades.5. Coffin scamThis is one of a kind of scam, where even the coffins for the soldiers who died in the Indo-Pak war, were bought for low quality and at higher price. The government had paid about $2500 per coffin, which was earlier purchased for $172 per coffin. And moreover the quality was very poor. This led to range among the public and led to the resignation of the defense minister.6. NTRO scamThe comptroller and auditor general unearthed a Rs 450-crore scam that happened in 2007 involving the purchase of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles by the Hyderabad-based National Technical Research Organisation, a technical arm of the external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing.Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) were purchased from an Israeli company, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), but every rule was flouted in its purchase. A letter was also sent out to National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon complaining of the irregularities in recruitment of officers in intelligence gathering agency. But it has now been found out that Govt took no action against the malpractices. In effect, it actually handed over the probe to the same man who was accused in the first place!7. Tatra defence procurement scamTop officials of BEML Limited, a Bangalore-based company, and the defence ministry siphoned off at least Rs750 crore in bribes and commissions over the past 14 years in the purchase of components for Tatra trucks, backbone of the army's artillery and transportation wings.The Indian Army uses Tatra all-terrain vehicles to mount guided missile launchers and haul heavy artillery. It also uses these vehicles to transport personnel, supplies, tanks, ammunition, bailey bridges, and the like.Flouting defence ministry guidelines, BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, has been buying components for the 6x6 and 8x8 trucks from a middleman in London.8. Tehelka TapesTwo reporters who went around as representatives of a fake defence firm recorded many key political leaders, military officers and civil servants talking in detail about how bribes were paid in defence deals. Defence minister George Fernandes had to resign after his party's treasurer boasted in the tapes about collecting bribes along with Jaya Jaitly from arms dealers. Specific evidence emerged of paybacks in purchase of Barak missiles from Israel, upgunning of artillery guns etc. No major breakthrough in CBI investigations until today. It has closed at least one of the cases without any evidence.9. Denel ScandalAllegations emerged in South Africa that Denel, a government-controlled firm which had supplied anti-material rifle to Indian Army, had paid bribes to middlemen for the Indian contract. Chargesheet yet to be filed.10. Sudipto Ghosh Scandal In 2009, the CBI arrested the just-retired chief of Ordnance Factory Board Sudipto Ghosh and several of his associates for fixing contracts of OFB. After CBI found evidence of bribery, the government in March 2012 blacklisted six companies for 10 years—Singapore Technologies, Israeli Military Industries, Germany's Rheinmetall Air Defence, Russian firm Corporation Defence, Indian firms T S Kisan & Company and R K Machine Tool.11. Abhishek Verma ScandalThe son of former members of Parliament is in jail, and he and his wife are accused of stealing defence secrets and accepting bribes from defence firms. Investigations are continuing into the affairs of Verma, who may have also had a role in the VVIP helicopter deal.12. Sukna land scamTwo senior lieutenant generals and a major general were named in converting a 70-acre land adjacent to Sukna military station in Siliguri of West Bengal into an educational institution by handing it over to a private trust.The controversy involved issuing of no-objection certificate for the private trust to buy the land for construction of the educational institution on the condition that wards of army personnel from Sukna military station too would get to study there.Then army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor's military secretary Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash and then 33 Corps commander Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath were court martialled in the case and punished for their involvement in the alienation of the 70-acre land that was originally a tea estate.The court martial had dismissed Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash from service after finding him guilty in the case.13. Adarsh society scamIn this scam, land was allotted to the war widows of Kargil war and also for the retired personal of The Defense Services. Over a period of 10 years, the top politicians and bureaucrats bend several rules and commit various acts of commission and omission to have the building in order and finally they got themselves allotted with flats at the premium locality at a much cheaper cost. This scam is noticeable as it took keen planning and almost 10 years to execute this kind of brutality to the poor and left alone in the defense.