The CBI has booked 12 Army officials for allegedly taking bribe from candidates through proper banking channels during the recruitment of religious teachers in the force in 2013, officials said on Wednesday.

The agency has also booked five private persons -- four from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and one from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh -- for paying bribes to Army officials to influence the recruitment drive, they said.

The case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption has been registered yesterday on a complaint from Major General N Srinivas Rao, HQ Telangana and Andhra Sub area, they said.

It is alleged that Subedar M N Tripathi, who was initially part of the recruitment board, was the mastermind in the matter but was removed from the interview panel after a complaint against him, they said.

But even after removal he had given a list of 20 candidates to his successor Subedar Satya Prakash on the panel to be favoured during the recruitment by asking simple questions and giving maximum marks, the FIR alleged.

The teachers were inducted for spiritual activities in the unit to deliver spiritual motivation to the troops.

The recruitment of the religious teachers at the Artillery Centre, Hyderabad during 16-19 September, 2013 was for spiritual activities in the unit and to deliver spiritual motivation to the troops, the complaint had said.

Besides Tripathi and Prakash, the CBI has also booked Subedar M K Pandey, Naik Aditya Narayan Tiwari, Craftsmen Praveen Kumar Saraswat, Naib Subedar Shiv Poojan Dwivedi, Lance Naik Jitendra Kumar Yadav, Naik Jagdish Narayan Pandey, Naib Subedar Bal Krishna Garg, Sepoy Madhvendra Mishra, Sepoy Rajesh Kumar Goswami and Naib Subedar Shaktidher Tiwari.

Five Gorakhpur-based neighbours of Tripathi -- Indrajeet Gupta, Mithai Lal Gupta, Amarnath Gupta and Vishwajeet Gupta -- and Pankaj Bilthare of Sagar have also been booked for allowing their accounts to be used in alleged bribery.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Thursday, 26 April 2018 | PTI | New Delhi