Among the documents carried by senior auditors Ajay Kumar, Rajan Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Jayprakash, Indubhushan Prasad and Ershad Ahmed, was a letter signed by the Lt Col Anjani Kumar, the OC of the Eastern Command Hospital’s medical stores. The letter refers to the outstanding bills of 26 Kolkata-based pharma suppliers amounting to Rs 1 crore.

The police carried out the raid at Hotel Savera in the New Market area following an intelligence tip-off on May 9. Following which, the auditors were caught red-handed settling bills of the pharma suppliers for a percentage kickback. The CDA auditors, whose endorsement is required for payment of bills of suppliers to defence installations, had apparently come to Kolkata to expedite settlement of the outstanding bills.

They were also carrying a letter related to the procurement of Local Area Network (LAN) testing equipment worth Rs 2,30,048 for the Eastern Command (Numbered: SC/1/01/23INFDIV/07418 and dated March 27, 2008) from the office of the CDA, Patna to the HQ, 23 Infantry Division.

Sources told The Indian Express that the auditors had booked themselves into the hotel and were entertaining a steady stream of representatives of pharma suppliers.

The idea was to sanction the payment on the spot in exchange for 10 per cent of the bill amount.

Graft money in cash amounting to Rs 5.4 lakh was also recovered from them.

Besides the documents, the auditors were also carrying diaries with multiple entries and billing reference numbers. Carrying such documents out of the office compromises the medical and communication security of the Forces.

Senior Auditor Ajay Kumar, however, denied any wrongdoing on their part. “We had come to Kolkata to watch the IPL match. We had left for Kolkata straight from office and carried the documents by mistake. However, we could not go for the match due to the rain. The mentioned amount in cash was not in our possession,” said Kumar.