INDIAN Army’s corruption has taken a new and unique form when it was discovered that its personnel have been planting fake improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and claiming hefty cash awards. Certain individuals, including Indian ex-servicemen, allegedly in connivance with some army officials of Northern and Western Commands are engaged in “planting black sand” and passing them on as RDX-laden IEDs to earn award money, highly-placed sources in the Indian government said. The interrogation report of some of the accused including Mehboob Dar and an ex-serviceman Ram Prasad show a deep-rooted “nexus” between the ex-servicemen and Planting of “fake” improvised explosive devices by some people allegedly in collusion with certain middle-rung Army officials is becoming a new way in strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir to earn hefty cash rewards. The nexus emerged when police recovered a consignment of apple boxes on 8th October near MLAs’ hostel in Jammu in which a cavity had been created to store a black material which was being passed off as explosive. The boxes had detonators attached to them, triggering panic. After a detailed forensic analysis, the explosive material turned out to be black sand which was attached to wires and detonators that were brought from stone quarries to give a realistic look of an IED, the sources said. They said it seems to be a well-planned racket in which these people earn cash rewards from secret funds given to military intelligence for gathering inputs from along the international border with Pakistan and the Line of Control.
The Daily Mail’s investigating team has brought to light that the corrupt Indian military have been claiming Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 as compensation for the fake IEDs. The case came to light as the main culprits Dar and his accomplice Krishen confessed that between February 2009 and October 2010, they had planted as many as fifty fake IEDS and pocketed more than 25 Lakh Rupees. In all these instances, their modus operandi has been that such fake explosives were depicted as “destroyed insitu” (destroyed on the spot). Indian Army’s spokesperson in Jammu has admitted that “No involvement of military intelligence or Army personnel has come to light.” He added that the role of military intelligence personnel, in this case, was limited to providing timely inputs to police authorities. It is absolutely clear that Messers Dar and Krishen could not have been conducting the corruption at such a massive scale without the connivance of senior and middle ranking officers of the Indian Army deployed in the region. Dar had told his interrogators that he had initially been directed by Satnam Singh, an intelligence operative working with the Army, to bring some sand, crushed stones and cement and pay money to stone quarries to get detonators. These were assembled and planted along with gelatine sticks at a bridge in Doda. Later, recalled Dar, he had read in a newspaper the next day that the Army had recovered the same and shown it as IED, the official said, adding for this work, Singh had paid him Rs 40,000. In certain cases, Dar was asked by some officials of the Army intelligence to “gift” IEDs to some people after he had developed the art of manufacturing the fake devices, the sources said. They said Dar or Krishen were not alone in this trade and it was fast becoming a “cottage industry” where civilians were roped in for such acts with the bait of easy money.
The morality of the Indian Army is at such low ebb that every day a fresh and unique scandal is discovered. At this rate, Indian Army can enter the Guinness Book of Records for its innovative techniques in discovering new and matchless methods of corruption and fleecing their own government and people. – Dailymailnews
