October 22, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 4, 1422

NEW DELHI, Oct 21: India has put at least 40 senior air force and defence officials on a watchlist in order to weed out corruption in arms and hardware purchases, a report said on Sunday.

“As many as 40 serving Indian Air Force and ministry of defence officials are facing a court of inquiry on a range of charges from leaking sensitive documents to taking bribes from arms dealers,” the Indian Express newspaper said, quoting unnamed senior air force officials.

Court martial proceedings have begun in the case of an air commodore and a wing commander in connection with bribery, the newspaper reported.

Officials working in the office of the Controller of Defence Accounts are also under tight watch.

The Indian Air Force started its investigations in July following a military scandal when an Internet news website showed politicians, bureaucrats and army officials taking bribes from journalists posing as arms dealers.

Six officers are facing a court martial after journalists from the Indian website www.tehelka.com used spy cameras to video-tape three of them candidly negotiating bribes to fix military purchase contracts.

India has the world’s fourth largest airforce and a 1.3-million-strong army with some 40,000 commissioned officers. —AFP