Army personnel at the Military Command Hospital here allegedly locked up and manhandled a team of CBI officials, after which the sleuths registered a complaint with the police against a Major General for obstructing government officials from performing their duties.
A CBI team, accompanied by the local police, went to the hospital premises on Friday following a complaint from a vendor engaged in supplying medicines and surgical equipment alleging irregularities in purchases and seeking of bribe by an officer of the rank of Lt Colonel, official sources said here.
However, the CBI team, on reaching the hospital, were first locked up and then surrounded by nearly 40 lathi-wielding Army personnel, the agency said in its complaint to the Pune police, a copy of which has been sent to agency headquarters in Delhi.
According to Vidya Kulkarni, CBI-ACB superintendent, the CBI officials sought the assistance of the police to go ahead with the searches, to which Maj. Gen. S.S. Panwar, commandant Command hospital, objected.
The CBI claimed that at the behest of the major general, the Army personnel did not allow its officials to perform the duties. The CBI officials were later allowed to leave without performing their duties.
However, late in the night, the sleuths carried out the searches with a larger presence of the police and sezied some of the documents, the sources said. Some of the documents might have already been removed by the Army officials, CBI apprehends. A command hospital spokesman denied the CBI team was manhandled.