The Government on Monday placed the BEML Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V.R.S.Natarajan, under suspension.

Defence Ministry spokesman Mr Sitanshu Kar said this was recommended by the CBI, which is probing the alleged irregularities in the BEML-Tatra trucks deal.

“The CBI [wanted] that he should be kept away from the post to ensure fair investigation. The charge of the CMD has been given to Mr P. Dwarkanath, the senior-most functional Director in BEML,” he said. The MoD issued a release in the afternoon.

The CBI is looking into the Tatra trucks issue and other charges that have been made against BEML and Mr Natarajan, among them the award of an ERP contract.

Mr Natarajan, who came in as BEML's head in 2002 and retires in September, did not answer phone calls.

The Rs 3,000-crore mining and construction equipment major assembles for the Armed Forces a range of trucks under a 1986 licence from then Czechoslovak company Tatra a.s. After that country broke up in 1993, the supply channel morphed into the present source, Tatra Sipox UK of London. With Tatra Sipox being a marketing subsidiary, questions were raised about the military supplies not being done through the OEM.

In March, the then Army chief, General V.K.Singh, said a former senior Army officer had offered him Rs 14 crore as bribe for approving a new batch of 600 Tatra trucks. BEML has denied its hand in the case. General Singh also said the trucks were sub-standard and overpriced.

>madhu@thehindu.co.in

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