Transfer racket: Army men paying lakhs for postings, claims CBI

New Delhi: The CBI on Saturday arrested an Army officer and a middleman in connection with a transfer racket at the Army headquarters in which officers allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to manipulate their postings.

"Searches were conducted at the premises, including the residence of arrested accused and others in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram which led to recovery of cash over Rs 10 lakh (approximately) and incriminating documents and other articles," CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur said.

The agency is also probing how Army officers were ready to pay lakhs of rupees to get a posting of their choice.

There are allegations that Lt. Col. Moni entered into a criminal conspiracy with Mr Kohli and Purshottam. Purshottam allegedly contacted Army officers who were either posted in different



field formations or faced imminent transfer and were desirous of getting posted to their preferred locations. He used to contact Kohli, who was close to senior officers in the personnel division of the Army headquarters here. Kohli used these contacts to pursue transfers of army officers in lieu of huge illegal gratification, the FIR said.

The bribe was being paid through hawala channels, the CBI FIR alleged. It has alleged that Moni entered into a criminal conspiracy with Kohli and Purshottam, an army officer posted in the engineer stores department (ESD), Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, for influencing the transfer of various officers.

Purshottam allegedly contacted army officers who were either posted in different field formations or faced imminent transfer, and were desirous of getting posted to their preferred locations.