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The Hinduja brothers have claimed that the charge-sheet against them in the Bofors gun deal kickback case was filed without evidence and in haste and that the denial of official permission to them to leave the country would indirectly help prime accused Ottavio Quottrocchi.
''There is no document or evidence of any kind to prove that Hindujas got money from A B Bofors in the Rs 14.37 Billion gun deal. Swedish authorities have also certified that payments received in the accounts of Prakashchand during May-December 1986 were not related to the Bofors-India deal,'' the Hindujas told the CBI during interrogation.
It is understood that during the ten-day interrogation in January this year, London-based Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja, and Geneva-based Prakash Hinduja challenged the agency to prove before the court if there was any document showing their involvement in the controversial deal.
They said their case was somewhat different from Quottrocchi, and ex-Bofors agent Win Chadha against whom it has been conclusively proved through documents received from Swiss authorities that they had received huge commissions.
Sources close to investigators told UNI Wednesday that the Hindujas also claimed that the treatment meted out to them without evidence will rather hamper the extradition of the actual beneficiary of the Bofors gun deal -- Italian businessman Quottrocchi -- who is presently in Malaysia.
During the extradition hearing in a Malaysian court on January 22, Quottorocchi had argued that he feared that like the Hindujas he would not receive a fair deal if extradited to India.
The CBI alleges the Hindujas took 81 million Swedish kroner from gun company A B Bofors as a pay-off in the 1.2 billion-dollar sale of 400 Howitzer field guns to the Indian government in 1986.
The Hindujas alleged that the charge-sheet against them does not accuse them of corruption and bribery and evidence of conspiracy was also not mentioned.
They also accused the CBI of filing the charge-sheet against them in a hurry even without waiting for a response from Swiss authorities to queries raised by the CBI in June last year, about four months before their charge-sheeting.
The three brothers were charge-sheeted by the agency on October 12 and taking its cognizance in December the court issued summons against them. The three brothers appeared before the trial court of Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke on January 19 this year.
The Hindujas found no logic in denying them permission to go abroad to carry out their business as their interrogation has been ''completed and they would not be required before framing of charges and initiation of the trial in the case.''
The trial, in any case, would start only after the CBI succeed in extraditing the other two accused in the case Quottrocchi and Martin Arbdo, they said.
The excuse that the brothers had changed their nationality and would not come back when needed was untenable as they had come in the first place without hiding behind their foreign nationality, they claimed. Besides, they have given undertakings for appearance before the CBI as and when required.
CBI sources said the Hindujas submitted documents supporting their case that neither the funds received from A B Bofors by Mcintire, owned by Prakashchand Hinduja, were connected with the Indian gun deal nor the flow of funds on from these accounts was part of any clandestine operation.
All the funds have remained with the Hinduja group and are on account of global counter-trade.
UNI
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