[Valdoyes]

I have been saying this since this began. I also said that in 2005 a similar karnataka High Court case went waste.

BEML probe scope widened - Indian Express

In 2005 also, there were allegations that Tatra family of trucks were being procured from an agent and not directly from OEM and that BEML was at best an assembler of such vehicles without absorbing technology.


In the wake of these allegations, the Defence Ministry had gone into the matter and apparently found that there was nothing wrong in procuring components from the intermediary company.

[T1ivuQGS]

CBI seeks quality feedback of Tatra trucks spare parts from Army - Times Of India

The CBI has not found any "adverse comments" regarding the quality of Tatra truck's spare parts.


Now, the agency has approached the "end users" — the three commands of the Army — asking them about the problems they faced while using the all-terrain trucks. It is also studying a voluminous set of documents received from the Director General of Quality Assurance (DGQA), the quality checking unit of the ministry of defence (MoD).

DGQA was approached recently by the CBI seeking its inspection reports on all the procurement contracts of Tatra trucks by defence PSU, BEML. The agency suspected that Vectra chairman Ravinder Rishi's firm was favoured by employees from different units of the MoD by giving favourable reports, and hoped to find similar 'biases' in DGQA's inspection records.


A source said, "The DGQA documents do not show any adverse comments in respect to Tatra parts so far, but we are studying more documents." The agency has sought details from the three commands of the Army to know objections raised by them while using Tatra trucks and if they made complaints to the MoD regarding its spare parts.


The probe is focusing on technical specifications of the spare parts, and whether Rishi's company was selected unfailingly to deliberately eliminate the other competitors. The agency is collecting details of all the bidders, who had applied for supply for trucks in the Army.


DGQA looks after quality assurance for arms, ammunitions, equipment and stores supplied to the Army. The agency had also asked DGQA, if it received any complaints regarding spare-parts of Tatra trucks.


The agency still suspects that several officials from different units of the MoD and the Army, who had joined Rishi's firm after retirement, could have played a vital role in ensuring that the Tatra acquisition went on smoothly for the past 26 years.


The CBI is also preparing to send a Letter Rogatory and a team to Czech Republic for the probe, including ascertaining why the Army was supplied with Tatra vehicles based on an older technology. The investigation has revealed that despite stringent clause for indigenization and upgrade of technology in the original agreement signed with Czech based Tatra a.s, the indigenization efforts by BEML fell well short of the target.

[acneman]

New Army chief begins clean-up operations of force mired with controversies : The Big Story - India Today

The outgoing general, however, denied that the notice to Lt-Gen Suhag was an attempt to change the line of succession. "There is no line of succession,'' General V.K. Singh said in response to a question on the sidelines of a book launch in Delhi. "In the Army, promotions are based on certain laid down criterion. There is no fixed line of succession," he added.