India News | CBI Books Former DG Coast Guard for ACR 'manipulation' of Senior Officers
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The CBI has registered an FIR against former Director General Coastguard K Natrajan for alleged tampering of Annual Confidential Report (ACR) dossiers of senior officers, officials said on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) The CBI has registered an FIR against former Director General Coastguard K Natrajan for alleged tampering of Annual Confidential Report (ACR) dossiers of senior officers, officials said on Tuesday.
The Defence Ministry had sent a reference to the CBI highlighting alleged manipulations in the confidential personal records of senior officers. The agency initiated a preliminary enquiry in April last year.
After nearly 10 months of preliminary enquiry, the CBI found "instances of alteration" in the ACR dossiers of many officers while Non Initiation Certificate (NICs) of few of the officers were found missing.
"It has been further revealed that Non-Initiation Certificate (NIC) found to be not in order as they are not in congruence with the transfer and posting profile of the concerned officer and initiating officer. NICs have been submitted 3-4 years after passing of the reporting period," the FIR alleged.
The issue came to light when Coast Guard Inspector General Rakesh Pal sent a representation to the defence secretary on the issue on June 7, 2021.
He had raised the issue of alleged deliberate reduction in numerical assessment of his ACRs and Dossiers for depriving him of his next possible promotion to the rank of ADG in forthcoming DPC in 2019.
The ministry had constituted a fact-finding committee consisting of Joint Secretary (Armed Forces) and Joint Secretary (BRO & Cer.) to examine the ACRs of last seven years -- from 2014 onwards -- of Inspector Generals/Additional Director Generals under consideration of promotion to ADG since September, 2019 to ascertain instances of any alteration in the ACR dossier.
The CBI preliminary enquiry showed that the grading for the year 2014 and 2015 of two officers were enhanced whereas those of Rakesh Pal were downgraded.
"As a result, Rakesh Pal was placed at Serial number 3 below other two officers and was not promoted by DPC held during September, 2019," the preliminary enquiry findings said.
The CBI alleged that the handing over and taking over memo dated June 30, 2019 for ACR and DPC files, Director General Rajender Singh handed over all ACR dossiers to K. Natarajan, the then DG. At this point of time, "no issue of any alteration and tampering of such records was observed".
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