Lt Col, middleman arrested in Army transfer racket

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested a Lt Colonel and a middleman in connection with an alleged transfer racket at the Army headquarter here in which lakhs of rupees were paid by army officers to manipulate their postings.

The CBI, which registered the case on the basis of intelligence gathered by it, arrested Lt Col Ranganathan Suvramani Moni and Gaurav Kohli while an alleged bribe of Rs two lakh was changing hands for transfer of a Bengaluru based army officer.

The FIR names a Brigadier but his name has not been included in the list of accused.

The alleged racket was suspected to be going on in the Army headquarter with the involvement of senior officers there.

The bribe was being paid through hawala channels, the CBI FIR alleged. The agency is also focusing on how the army officers were ready to pay lakhs of rupees to get a posting of their choice.

The case has been registered against Lt Col Ranganathan Suvramani Moni, Personnel Division, Army Headquarter, an army officer Purushottam, who is based in Hyderabad, Gaurav Kohli and S Subhas, BSO Bengaluru, Indian Army.

It is alleged that Moni had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Kohli and Purshottam, an army officer posted in ESD, Kakinara for influencing transfer of various officers.