Recording of 'bribe' offer to former army chief not clear: CBI

The recording device handed over by the then Army Chief V K Singh, purported to carry a conversation relating to bribe offer made to him, is malfunctioning and nothing can be retrieved from it, says CBI.

Quoting a forensic report, highly placed sources in the CBI said some noise came out of the device and nothing was audible after which it was sent for examination at the Central Forensic and Scientific Laboratory (CFSL).

The forensic experts tried to retrieve data from the recording device which was provided by the then Army Chief as an evidence of the alleged bribe offer of Rs 14 crore made to him by a senior retired officer to clear a tranche of 600 all terrain trucks.

They said despite trying various techniques, the experts could not manage to retrieve data from the device, which was claimed to be an important piece of evidence by Singh in support of his complaint.

Singh had claimed the lobbyist offered him the bribe in order to have a tranche of 600 sub-standard vehicles of a particular make cleared for purchase.

Vishwajeet Singh, counsel for Gen (retd) Singh, told PTI that the recording device had some problems and the CBI had said that it would try to retrieve the data.