CBI team from Chandigarh arrived in two vehicles during surprise raid on Saturday late night arrêsted four persons including two army officers Lt. Col Rahul Pawar Barack Store officer and Pradeep Kumar Subedar Major at Ambala Cantt along with contractors Dinesh Kumar and S. Preetpal allegedly demanding bribe. The team during search recovered Rs 32.50 lakh from Lt. Col. Rahul Pawar and Rs 16 lakh from the contractors and a case was registered specifying their visit at police station Ambala Cantt. The raiding team first visited the residence of Col. Wasim Siddiqi but no one was available. When intervened by security guard CBI team took him in custody.
CBI team again visited the residence of Col. Wasim Siddiqi on Sunday but found house locked. Before returning to Chandigarh CBI team got deployed Military Police outside the residence of both arrested army officers. All arrested were produced in CBI court Panchkula on Monday. Information reveals, earlier all army purchases and tenders were invited and finalized by MES when large numbers of embezzlements were reported. In order to stop corruption and bring transparency in procurements government launched GEM portal for all procurements but embezzlements still continued and suppliers started quoting much higher rates in supplies of material and tenders in conspiracy with the officers of government department.
