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Tatra Sipox (UK) Ltd has sought the Defence Ministry's sanction to start legal proceedings against the Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, for what it claimed as slanderous allegation against it by imputation in the course of an interview to The Hindu recently.
The General had alleged he was offered Rs 14 crore as bribe to clear purchase of 600 sub-standard Army trucks.
Though he did not name the brand in the interview,, virtually all the 7,000 trucks used extensively by the Army since 1986 are from Tatra. Indian defence enterprise BEML assembles them under licence at Bangalore, KGF and the new Palghat facilities. The General also had said the price of the trucks was inflated.
Tatra Sipox's letter dated March 28 is addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Mr Shashi Kant Sharma, and is signed by Ms Elena Ustynovich.
Internet searches show her to be a Surrey, UK-based Director for two group companies —Tatra Tanax Ltd and Tatra FTC.
The letter, a copy of which is with Business Line, said, “We are aggrieved by the nature of the false and unfounded allegations and the grave harm it causes to our reputation.”
No complaints
It said that so far there were no complaints about the performance of the trucks. As Tatra sells through BEML, it has no reason or occasion to approach General Singh, it said.
The trucks carry people, materials, jammers, communication equipment and are also used to launch missiles.
‘Will affect reputation'
The letter said: “Undoubtedly, it will adversely affect Tatra's reputation and its present and future commercial prospects... We are, therefore, constrained to proceed to adopt appropriate legal proceedings including but not limited to prosecution of General V. K. Singh for the offences of slander/libel/defamation and other remedies that may be available to us in law.
“Since [he] is a serving officer in the Army we have been advised that it would be appropriate that we approach and seek from your office the necessary legal sanction to proceed with such legal remedy against General V.K. Singh.”
All deals transparent: BEML
Separately, BEML's CMD, Mr V.R.S. Natarajan, said all its truck supply deals to the Army were transparent and clean. Being the sole supplier, the question of a middleman did not arise nor was true.
“We have nothing to hide. All costing is in the open. It has no role in the current controversy. We will be happy to clear the air before the investigators.”
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