Army transfer racket: Lt Col, middleman granted bail by court

A Lieutenant Colonel and an alleged middleman has been granted bail by a special court here in a case related to a transfer racket at the Army Headquarters here in which officers allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to manipulate their postings.

Special CBI Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra granted relief to Lt. Colonel Ranganathan Suvramani Moni, posted in the personnel division of the Army, and Gaurav Kohli on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of like amount.

The court, however, directed the accused to cooperate in the probe and not to tamper with the evidence.

In their bail applications, both the accused persons had claimed that they were no more required for custodial interrogation and no damage would be caused to the probe if they were granted the bail.
 

Public prosecutor Shampa Tikait had opposed the bail plea stating that the investigation was at the initial stage and the accused could tamper with evidence if they were granted bail.

According to the CBI, an FIR was registered against Moni, a Hyderabad-based Army officer identified only as Purshottam, Bengaluru-based barracks and stores officer (BSO) S Subhas and Kohli for various offences including criminal conspiracy and corruption.

The bribe was paid through hawala channels, the CBI claimed in its FIR. It alleged that Moni entered into a criminal conspiracy with Kohli and Purshottam, working in the engineer stores, for influencing transfer of officers.

Purshottam allegedly contacted army officers who were either posted to different field formations or faced a transfer and wanted a preferred location.

He used to contact Kohli, who was allegedly close to senior officers in the personnel division of the Army headquarters here, and used these contacts to transfer the officers for money, the FIR said.

It claimed Purshottam requested Kohli to pursue the posting of one D S R K Reddy and Subhas in return of a bribe. Both wanted to be posted from Bengaluru to Secunderabad or Visakhapatnam.

Moni assured Subhas that he would get him transferred through senior officers in the Army headquarters against payment, it claimed. Subhas allegedly delivered Rs 5 lakh as bribe to Kohli through hawala operators.