New Delhi, Oct 13: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has questioned the close aide of Union minister and former army chief Gen V K Singh in a money laundering probe.
The ED had registered a case on the basis of a CBI FIR in October 2014 in which Sai Baba Builders and Consultants and its directors supplied RAW’s covert unit — Special Frontier Force (SFF) — high-altitude tents worth Rs 21.6 crore by circumventing procedures between 2009 and 2013. The SFF is an elite guerrilla force, comprising mainly Tibetan refugees, headquartered at Chakrata in Uttarakhand.
Sources said S P Singh was questioned about taking a loan of about Rs 30 crore from a bank to execute the order and its subsequent default.
The ED is looking at the money trail in the case and once the “proceeds of crime” are identified, the tainted assets will be attached.
Invoking charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery, besides relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI had registered the case against unknown officials of SFF, the Cabinet Secretariat, Sai Baba Builders and Consultants and its three directors — Shyam Sunder Bhatter, J P N Singh and Manjari, Singh’s “estranged” wife.
“It has been reported that wrongful favour was shown by the officials of the SFF and Cabinet Secretariat in the matter of the preparation of tender, procurement, supply and installation of the pre-fabricated shelters for SFF troops during the period 2009-13 which were purchased from the company,” the CBI had then said.
The RAW had carried out an internal inquiry and found the tendering process suspicious. Earlier, parachutes bought for the SFF, too, had led to controversy but the matter did not come out for a third party official probe. The CBI probe into the case came after the PMO cleared such a move.
The tender for procuring these tents appeared to be tailor-made for the accused company, the CBI had said earlier, adding that Sai Baba Builders and Consultants submitted forged documents. Also, they claimed, the Cabinet Secretariat did not seek bank guarantee.
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