BEML slaps legal notice on V K Singh

Public sector undertaking BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited) on Friday served a legal notice on former Army chief General V K Singh demanding an apology for what it termed as false and motivated allegations against the company on the Tatra truck issue.

Briefing reporters, Chairman & Managing Director V R S Natarajan said, “if he does not apologise, we may file a defamation suit against General V K Singh for making such baseless charges.”

Stating that as the CEO of BEML, “I deny them as absolutely false, motivated, damaging and defamatory” showing the reputation of the company in a bad light, Natarajan defended the delay in initiating the process of defamation against General Singh saying the company had to go through the process of seeking legal advice and then placing it before the board for approval. He was answering a volley of questions on Tatra issue at a press meet on company’s financial results.

Disputing all charges made by General Singh, Natarajan said: “It was wilfully made to damage BEML’s impeccable reputation. The confidence built up in BEML has been demolished at one go.” “It is demeaning of the position General Singh held and I am puzzled at the calibre of a person of his stature” should have made such sweeping statements without being substantiated by facts at the fag end of his service,” he added.

BEML has not received a single letter that the Tatra vehicles is sub-standard, obsolete or over-priced, he averred. Taking a sniping potshot at General Singh, on his claims that Tatra trucks were available for Rs 28 lakh in the Czech Republic where the vehicles are manufactured, he quipped: “I don’t know from where he got these figures.”

Rejecting suggestions that the bribe offer to get clearance for purchase of the trucks could not have happened without BEML CEO’s knowledge, Natarajan asserted that “nowhere in the communications that were exchanged between General Singh and Ministry of Defence is the name of BEML traced.” “We are going to act decisively on this issue,” he thundered while also taking a dig at the press for running stories without taking the company’s or its officials’ version on the issue. He said they were ready to provide any details if approached on any clarification before the press ran the stories.

“We emphatically refute all charges made by the general against the company and Tatra trucks the company has been supplying to the army since 1986. At no point of time had the army  complained about the quality of the trucks or their operational functions,” Natarajan said, adding supply of Tatra trucks to the army was in conformity with the procedures laid down by the Defence Ministry.

General Singh had alleged that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe by a former officer to clear supply of a tranche of 600 Tatra trucks into which the CBI is investigating.

The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against retired Lt Gen Tejinder Singh on a complaint filed by General Singh in which he has alleged that the retired Army officer had offered him the bribe for clearing a ‘sub-standard’ consignment of Tatra trucks.