Adarsh: CBI wants info from defence ministry on salary of top army officers

MUMBAI: The emoluments of Army top brass as purportedly declared by them while procuring flats in Adarsh society here has surprised the CBI which is approaching the defence ministry to seek clarification on whether an Army Chief was being paid only Rs 23,450 per month. The CBI has procured the documents from the Maharashtra governmentin which the profiles of all the members of the controversial housing societywere mentioned along with their monthly income, official sources said.The documents had earlier been made public by an RTI activist Yogacharya Anandji which showed that then Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had shown his salary as Rs 23,450 and surprisingly around the same time his Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh had announced his salary as Rs 41,000 a month. CBI has collected these documents of 2007 and will write to theministry of defence seeking details regarding the same, a senior official saidadding, if the officials had filed false affidavits, action could be takenagainst them for "misrepresentation of facts". When asked to commenton these allegations, former Army Chief General Kapoor said that he had appliedto the society on December 26, 2005 when he was serving as Lt General ofNorthern Army Command. "I had given a salary slip which showed mymonthly emoluments at Rs 47,000 per month with nearly Rs 7,000 deducted asincome tax," Kapoor said. Gen Kapoor said he was not aware as to howthese documents showed the date of December 2007 as he had supplied no documentsin that year for the society. According to the documents procuredunder the RTI Act by Anandji, Kapoor while registering for a flat in the plushsociety in south Mumbai, had declared his monthly salary income as Rs 23,450only while Singh declared Rs 41,000 as his monthly income. Former Army chiefNirmal Chander Vij had in 2007 declared his monthly income as Rs 39,825.The documents have showed at least 40 out of the 87 proposed Adarshmembers declared monthly income of Rs 12,500 or lower as of January 2004(71-member list) and December 2007 (16-member list). Under a 1999 governmentresolution, civilians as well as retired defence and government employees couldnot get memberships in societies like Adarsh unless they earned Rs 12,500 amonth or lower. The rule was later relaxed for a few officers.