The court-martial was ordered by GOC 101 Area Shilong and the trial commenced on November 15, 2019 and concluded today. (Representational Image) The court-martial was ordered by GOC 101 Area Shilong and the trial commenced on November 15, 2019 and concluded today. (Representational Image)

A General Court Martial (GCM) has sentenced an Indian Army Colonel to five years of rigorous imprisonment, cashiered him from service and fined him Rs 10 lakhs after finding him guilty under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Col VPS Narula was posted as Station Staff Officer (SSO) at Narangi Military Station near Guwahati. He has been found guilty on eight charges, five out of which were under section 13(1)(e) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. One charge was for causing wrongful gain with intent to defraud under Army Act Section 52(f). Two charges were for improperly using labourers for private servants under Section 63 of the Army Act.

The court-martial was ordered by GOC 101 Area Shilong and the trial commenced on November 15, 2019 and concluded today. The Presiding officer of the trial was Brig Rajwant Singh, Dy GOC 41 Sub Area with four Colonels as members. Col Virender Singh (retd), a former Judge Advocate General department officer was the presecution counsel for the trial.

The prosecution brought out in the trial that as SSO, the Colonel used to sign contracts on behalf of Station Commander and that he signed a ‘Conservancy Contract’ and ‘Grass cutting Contract’ and that there had been bungling in them.

The annual grass cutting contract for Military Station Narangi for June 2017 was for Rs 5 lakhs. The contract money was to be deposited in the Station Cell Fund. The prosecution stated that the officer spoke to the contractor and told him that he can pay the contract money in installments and that too in cash directly to him and the receipt would be given after he had paid the complete money. The contractor paid him 5 lakhs in cash in seven installments till 16 April 2018. Thereafter he proceeded on leave without giving him the formal receipt.

In the meantime, the time for the next year’s contract came and tenders were opened. While finalization of the New Year contract, a need arose to see the last year’s contract rate but it was revealed that all the documents for the last year were missing from the file, which used to be in the custody of the accused.

On checking station cell accounts, it was revealed that no money had been deposited in the said fund. On inquiry from the contractor, he told that entire money was paid to the officer. Thereupon a court of inquiry was ordered. During the investigation by the court of inquiry, the officer deposited Rs 5 lakhs with the station fund.

The Colonel also signed the conservancy contract in Oct 2017 with one M/S Dynamic Services Company for outsourcing of 145 unskilled daily wage conservancy labourers for cleaning of Narangi Military Station and its satellite stations.

The officer was charged with having used the services of two labourers as domestic servant at his official residence at Narangi. The officer initially used the personal bank accounts of the two labourers to get the money from M/s Dynamic Services. The money used to be credited by M/s Dynamic Services in their accounts, which the two labourers used to withdraw in cash and hand over to the officer.

Thereafter, he asked both labourers to open new account and for opening the account the officer gave his own mobile number, E-mail ID and official residence address. He then obtained the bank documents viz cheque book, ATM Card, pass book inter-banking code etc. of these newly opened accounts from them. M/s Dynamic Services used to credit the money in these accounts regularly and he had been withdrawing/ transferring such money into his other account, his wife’s account and minor daughter’s accounts. He was found to be having 12 accounts in his name, his spouse’s name and two daughters’ names.

In the course of the trial, Col Narula denied the allegations levelled against him and said that he had never used the accounts of the two labourers. He examined his wife as defence witness who stated that she had invested money with the local partner of M/S Dynamic Services and the entire money in their banks was the returns/dividends of her investments with them.

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