Jammu and Kashmir Police have summoned three senior officers of the army's strategic 14 Corps in connection with the alleged pilferage and sale of high-altitude clothing and rations.
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Police have summoned three senior officers of the army's strategic 14 Corps in Leh for questioning in connection with the alleged pilferage and sale of high-altitude clothing and rations meant for troops deployed on Saichen.
Sources in Jammu and Kashmir's home department said police had issued summons to army authorities for producing two lieutenant colonels, a major and some other personnel for questioning. They claimed the local army unit was exerting "pressure" to keep the scam under wraps.
Evidence gathered by police so far pointed to the possible involvement of a brigadier in the scam. The state police have registered 11 FIRs since July this year after seizing food packets and other equipment meant for Siachen that were being sold in local market, sources said.
Police have also arrested 31 people, including shopkeepers, in various areas in northern Jammu and Kashmir. A few of them have made confessional statements before magistrates in which they named senior army officers who allegedly supplied the materials to them, sources said.
While the army was lodging "informal" protests with the state's top police brass against the district's Senior Superintendent of Police Alok Kumar, the state government is not willing to keep the scam under wraps or to hold a discreet inquiry as it believed that the alleged offences fell within the ambit of "anti-national activities", sources said.
Police are also averse to an inquiry by the army as the culprits behind a scam related to the pilferage of petrol and diesel were not identified by the 14 Corps, set up in the aftermath of the 1999 Kargil conflict to streamline the army's operational commitments in the region.
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