India army chief says he was offered bribe

The head of India's army has alleged that he was offered a bribe of $28m (£17.6m) by a defence equipment lobbyist. Gen VK Singh told The Hindu newspaper that he had reported the incident to Defence Minister AK Antony. Gen Singh said that the lobbyist offered the bribe to make him clear the purchase of 600 "sub-standard" vehicles of a "particular make". There has been no reaction from the government to Gen Singh's comments. Gen Singh said the army had 7,000 of the vehicles in question, and many had been sold at "exorbitant prices with no questions asked".

'Standards fallen'

"Just imagine, one of these men had the gumption to walk up to me and tell me that if I cleared the tranche, he would give me 140 million rupees [$2.7m; £1.7m]. He was offering a bribe to me, to the army chief," he said. "He told me that people had taken money before me and they will take money after me." Gen Singh said he had immediately reported the matter to the defence minister. "I told him, if you think I'm a misfit, I will walk out," he said. Gen Singh did not say when the alleged incident happened. He said the incident proved that "obviously somewhere our standards of probity and integrity have fallen". Gen Singh was involved in a row with the government over his retirement age. He had gone to the Supreme Court seeking a ruling to establish his date of birth as 10 May 1951 - as his birth certificate and other official documents record. Last month he dropped his case against the government after the Supreme Court said it had found no error or prejudice in the government's and army's setting of the date as a year earlier, on 10 May 1950. The date of birth determines if the general retires this year or next.