The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned defence PSU BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited) Chairman and Managing Director VRS Natarajan on Tuesday for questioning in the Tatra truck contact. Natarajan will have to explain the contract renewed with the UK-based Tatra Sipox in 2003 despite the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointing out serious procurement lapses in 2000.

He may wriggle out of the first deal struck by the BEML in 1997 with the British intermediary of Czech company Tatra a.s. that the CBI is probing since he was not there with the company then but he cannot escape from explaining the deal renewed in 2003 when he headed it.

The CBI is probing a case handed over to it late last month on BEML buying Tatra trucks from Tatra Sipox which is an intermediary firm and not an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in violation of the defence procurement rules mandating acquisitions only from the OEMs.

Sources said Natarajan will also be grilled about some 500 trucks lying unused for want of spare parts as they cost Rs 40,000 crore to the exchequer. He has to answer questions on the payment made for 3,000 completely knocked down (CKD) kits for the assembly of the trucks that have piled up as unnecessary inventory because the delivery came without necessary gearboxes.

Though he had boasted during a defence expo here that BEML has indigenised 60 percent of the parts going into the manufacture of the Tatra trucks, he will be put to task to explain why the import of almost entire CKD kits was going into the manufacture of trucks. He will be asked to identify the indigenised components fitted in the truck and their percentage.

Another tricky question on which Tatra-Vectra chairman Ravi Rishi has been grilled thrice is the way the General Staff Qualitative Requirement was downgraded to suit Tatra Sipox to supply the trucks for the Indian Army. About 5000 trucks have been supplied to the Army since Tatra Sipox came into picture.

Meanwhile, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) secretary Dipankar Mukherjee, a former MP, on Monday wrote to Defence Minister AK Antony to suspend Natarajan and order an independent "techno-administrative" probe into his false claims of indigenisation of Tatra trucks by BEML.

"The claim of the CMD, BMEL, that 68 percent of components have been indigenised appears to be hollow as…only small value items such as fasteners, hardware items, hooks, nameplates are being made indigenously. Heavy items such as engines, cabin, gear boxes, axles and chassis are not fully indigenised or if some are, they are hardly in use," Mukherjee affirmed.

He said: "The Tatra–BEML deal is not only an issue of criminal culpability or financial impropriety, but a serious act of administrative lapse and dereliction of duty at the top level of BEML, causing irreparable damage to the image and reputation of a defence PSU."