The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday started a probe against a Delhi-based company for using cheap Chinese parts for manufacturing the 155mm Dhanush guns— an indigenous version of Bofors gun— by passing it off under the tag of 'Made in Germany'.
I Can Only Certify that Bofors Guns are Good: Manohar Parrikar
The agency has filed a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery against Sidh Sales Syndicate and a few other unknown officers of Guns Carriage Factory (GCF) in Jabalpur after an anonymous source tipped them about the ongoing racket.
"In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, unknown officials of GCF accepted the Chinese manufactured 'Wire Race Roller Bearings' supplied by Sidh Sales Syndicate which were embossed as 'CRB-Made in Germany'," read the FIR filed by the CBI.
Fake parts and documents
Apart from claiming that Sidh Sales Syndicate were sourcing fake bearings from a German firm called the CRB Antriebstechnik, the Indian company also produced a set of certificates from the German firm.
However, the CBI, found that the documents were forged and the German company did not even manufacture the bearings that it was supposed to have supplied.
The agency has also recovered emails exchanged between the Delhi-based company and the Chinese firm called Sino United Industries (Luyang) Ltd Henan, which had supplied the parts.
The CBI has said that the production and performance of the Dhanush gun is extremely crucial for India's defence preparedness and "wire race roller bearing" is its vital component
Cost of the bearings
The first order for four bearings was placed by the factory in 2013 at the value of Rs 35.38 lakh. In August 2014, the company was asked to provide six which increased the cost by Rs 17.69 lakh. The delivery of two bearings each was made on three occasions between 7 April 2014 and 12 August 2014.
How effective are the Dhanush guns
The Bofors artillery guns were used by the Indian army during the Kargil war in 1999 and had given them an upper hand over the Pakistan military.
However, these Indian-made guns have cleared trials with the Indian Army and has proved to be 20 to 25 percent better than the Bofors in parameters like range, accuracy, consistency, low and high angle of fire and shoot-and-scoot ability. It has the ability to strike targets 38 km away as compared to the original Bofors gun which has a range of approximately 27 kilometres.
The Indian Army plans to acquire 414 Dhanush guns.
