Jeep scandal case

With the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 ongoing, the Indian Army required more jeeps for combating the Pakistani Army. V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, placed order for 2,000 refurbished jeeps for a cost at which new jeeps could be purchased from the United States or Canada. He argued that they would be delivered immediately with delivery of spare parts. The little-known Anti-Mistantes, whose capital at the time was only £605, was assigned to deliver the jeeps. Krishna Menon agreed to pay $172,000, 65% of the total payment up-front without any inspection certificate. He also agreed that only 10% of the jeeps would be inspected. The earlier contract stipulated that 65% of the payment would be made upon inspection, 20% on delivery and rest a month after delivery. Of the 155 jeeps that arrived, none were re-serviceable. The defence ministry refused to accept them and Anti-Mistantes stopped delivering more jeeps. Menon, unable to contact them, entered into an agreement with S.C.K. Agencies for 1,007 jeeps with 68 being delivered monthly and the Indian government to be compensated for its loss in the older contract. Each jeep cost £458.10 while Anti-Mistantes was selling a jeep for £300. Menon agreed to change the contract, stipulating 12 jeeps to be delivered monthly for 6 months and later 120 jeeps to be delivered monthly. The firm however supplied only 49 jeeps in two years and refused to compensate the government.[3] The payment of the jeeps was made from the debt of United Kingdom owed to India since the British Raj.[4]

V. K. Krishna Menon bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with the foreign firm for the purchase of the jeeps.[5][6] While most of the money was paid upfront, just 155 jeeps landed,the then Prime Minister Nehru forced the government to accept them.[7] Govind Ballabh Pant, the then Home Minister and the then Government of Indian National Congress announced on 30 September 1955 that the Jeep scandal case was closed for judicial inquiry ignoring suggestion by the Inquiry Committee led by Ananthsayanam Ayyangar.[8] He declared that "as far as Government was concerned it has made up its mind to close the matter. If the opposition was not satisfied they can make it an election issue". Soon after on 3 February 1956 Krishna Menon was inducted into the Nehru cabinet as minister without portfolio.[9][10] Later Krishna Menon became Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's trusted ally and the defence minister.

Mahatma Gandhi's Personal Secretary Mr. U V Kalyanam, in a newspaper interview [11] said, "It is pertinent to mention here that Nehru made corrupt colleagues like Krishna Menon, who was involved in the infamous ‘jeep scam’ while he was the Defence Minister."