CBI to examine all recent contracts awarded by arrested official amid ₹500 crore ammunition deal bribery case

Allegations against Munitions India Limited (MIL) executive director Anil Kumar include leaking sensitive information in exchange for bribes.

Prefer HTon Google

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will examine all recent contracts awarded by Munitions India Limited (MIL) executive director Anil Kumar, who was arrested earlier this week for allegedly conniving with private contractors to extend favours to them at the state-run defence company in exchange for bribes, people familiar with the development said.

Officials said they will write to the defence ministry as well as MIL management to seek files or contracts handled by Kumar “to see the links between procurement decisions, private vendors and payments”.

He is currently being interrogated by the agency's sleuths, as allegations include leaking sensitive information related to defence production and procurement in exchange for bribes.

“MIL’s contracts are sensitive and important for the country's security. We will look into all the defence contracts handled by Kumar at MIL,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

What has happened so far

CBI had received information that huge amounts of cash were being delivered through ‘hawala’ to Kumar at his residence in Pune, after which a raid was carried out, and he was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Officials said that during interrogation, it was learnt that the cash was the bribe amount for favouring SMPP Limited in a ₹500 crore ammunition deal.

SMPP’s CEO Ashish Kansal and Kumar’s brother B Harshvardhan have also been arrested. The agency recovered ₹1.73 crore cash from Kumar’s premises and another ₹50 lakh from further raids at various locations in Mysuru, Bengaluru and Delhi.

The agency has alleged that Kumar was demanding and accepting illegal gratification from private contractors and vendors in exchange for official favours and the disclosure of sensitive information concerning defence production, procurement, and other strategically important activities of the company.

The agency has invoked sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act.

• 

  Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More