New Delhi: Six defence firms, including four from abroad, were Monday banned from doing business with ordnance factories in India for the next 10 years for their alleged links to a graft case involving a former Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chief.
Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), Israeli Military Industries (IMI), Germany’s Rheinmetall Air Defence and Corporation Defence Russia, as also two Indian firms, were debarred from dealing with the OFB (rpt OFB) of the department of defence production under the defence ministry.
The Indian firms facing the action are New Delhi-based T.S. Kishan and Company Private Limited and Ludhiana-based R.K. Machine Tools Limited.
This would mean these firms can deal with other wings of the defence ministry.
When asked to clarify, officials said it was only “common sense” that other wings of the ministry may desist from dealing with these firms.
This is an interesting twist to the “debar” tale, because the IMI is the supplier of Travor rifles for Indian special forces and this procurement is not necessarily done through the OFB.
“The defence ministry today (Monday) decided to debar six firms from further business dealings with the OFB, Department of Defence Production, MoD, for a period of 10 years,” defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in an official statement here.
This is only officialese to specify which wing of the ministry OFB belongs to.
The debarring of these six firms stems from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet against former OFB director general Sudipto Ghosh, and the probe agency’s recommendation for blacklisting the six firms. The CBI had filed the chargesheet against Ghosh and several others involved in the graft case in June 2010. (IANS)