Indian Army Chief General V K Singh has alleged that a defense equipment lobbyist offered him a bribe of 140 million rupees ($2.8 million) to have a tranche of 600 sub-standard vehicles cleared for purchase.
In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, General Singh has said that 7,000 of these vehiclesare already in use in the Indian Army after they were purchases at exorbitant prices over the years."One of these men had the gumption to walk up to me and tell me that if I cleared the tranche, he would give me 14 crore rupees. He was offering a bribe to me, to the Army Chief. He told me that people had taken money before me and they will take money after me, " General Singh said.He also told the newspaper that he reported the incident to Defense Minister A K Antony.
When asked how the Army Chief could be offered a bribe, he said, "Obviously somewhere our standards of probity and integrity have fallen."