Issue of Poor Quality Bulletproof Jackets surfaces Again:India

The lessons of 26/11 appear to have been forgotten in a hurry. Months after the Ram Pradhan Committee report indicted the Maharashtra government for the poor quality of bulletproof jackets, the issue has surfaced again.It was the poor quality of life-saving bulletproof jackets that could have cost Mumbai top cop Hemant Karkare’s life in the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks. However, lessons have not been learnt from the unforgettable incidence.

CNN-IBN has unearthed serious violations in a recent tendering and approval process for 59,000 bulletproof jackets floated by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Rules have allegedly been bent by the nation's premier Defence Research And Development Organisation (DRDO). Documents exclusively with CNN-IBN detail the testing process of all the eight bidders.

Violation No. 1

Two different samples of jackets were tested for live firing at the same time - 1305 hrs IST to 1320 hrs IST and 1312 hrs IST to 1318 hrs IST but the DRDO lab is a single bench test firing range, two samples just cannot be tested at the same time. How did the second test start before the first one finished?

Violation No. 2

As per the rule or standard operating procedure –‘wet jackets' have to be fired at within 10 minutes of soaking but the document clearly reveals how a sample was fired at after 17 minutes and rejected. Ironically, other bidders did adhere to this guideline and passed the trial.

Violation No. 3

If a jacket is perforated during a test shot, testing must end and the sample stands rejected. But the report shows how shot number 4 from an AK-47 pierced the jacket and yet more shots were fired at the sample. In another case, when an MP5 bullet pierced a sample jacket, the shot was declared "unfair", to allow testing to continue.

Even the declaration is a whiteout job endorsed only by RK Verma, one of the seven members on technical evaluation committee and the man who fired the shot.Interestingly, of the 376 shots fired during the trials, this was the only shot declared unfair.Jackets belonging to this vendor were approved in the technical bidding making it eligible for the financial bid.

CNN-IBN also found that lab test reports don't have the signatures of five out of seven members on the technical evaluation committee. Ironically, the Union Home Ministry in an internal note has conceded it has received several complaints about these trials.

At least three complaints are currently being examined. An alleged audio recording which indicts a technical evaluation committee member is also being examined.When CNN-IBN contacted Verma, who has been named in the complaints to the Ministry, he denied any wrongdoing but refused to come on camera and said that the Bureau of Police Research and Development were answerable.

Top level sources say that a worried Home Ministry has now halted the price bid for this tender.The chairman of the technical evaluation committee will also be asked to explain. The Director General of CRPF – the head of the tender appraisal committee – will be consulted and DRDO will be hauled up and the ballistic trials will be held again if the Ministry is convinced that they were manipulated.

CNN-IBN

Posted in: India