Bribery offer case: CBI gets audio tapes

Audio tapes of a purported conversation between Army Chief General V K Singh and another person were received by the CBI which is looking into the alleged bribery offer case referred by the Defence Ministry.
  
Agency sources did not give details of how the tapes reached the CBI but said unless their authenticity is established nothing can be said about it.
  
The tapes carry a purported conversation between the Army Chief and another officer in which the former is said to be shouting. However, they said the voices in the tapes are not authenticated so nothing can be said about their veracity.
  
Meanwhile, the agency has asked the Defence Ministry to make available a complaint from Singh besides other details such as list of witnesses and supporting documents after which it would initiate its probe in the case, they said.
  
"No formal complaint or any other document or supporting material received from Ministry of Defence as of now. The CBI has not registered any preliminary enquiry in the case," CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said here.
  
The sources said they have received a "reference" from the Defence Ministry to probe the matter and it has been processed as per the laid down procedure.
  
The Army chief had claimed in media interviews that an equipment lobbyist had offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore, a matter which he had reported to Defence Minister A K Antony.
  
The Ministry had then recommended a CBI probe into the allegation made by the Army chief.

Defence Minister A K Antony said the Army chief had told him about the bribe offer verbally more than a year back and he had told the General to take action. The Army Chief told Antony that that he did not wish to pursue it, he said.
  
There was no written communcation from the Army Chief on the bribe offer, the minister said.
  
The Army chief has said the lobbyist offered him the bribe in order to have a tranche of 600 sub-standard vehicles of a particular make cleared for purchase.
  
"Just imagine, 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 Rs 14 crore. 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," Gen Singh has said.