CBI questions General Sundarji for eight hours, Lt General Mayadas for 5 hours

The Central Bureau of Investigation questioned former army chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji for eight hours on Monday in connection with the Bofors case.

Another retired army officer, Lieutenant General Mayadas, was questioned for five hours on Tuesday by the 12-member CBI Special Investigation Team probing the Rs 640 million payoffs in the howitzer gun deal. He was in charge of the army's equipment section in 1986 when the Rs 14 billion deal was struck with the Swedish arms manufacturers

General Sundarji was examined for more than eight hours -- from around 1100 hours to well past 1900 hours. Though General Mayadas was present at the CBI headquuarters for over two hours on Monday, he was not examined because of the SIT's preoccupation with General Sundarji.

CBI sources said General Sundarji was confronted with a long and detailed questionnaire in the light of various statements made by the former army chief last week, alleging, among other things, that the entire ''cover-up operation was meant to save the skin of an individual'' and from information available from the 500-odd page secret Swiss bank documents relating to the recipients of the kickbacks in the deal.

The general's statements had sparked off a spate of reactions, including one from Rajiv Gandhi's family reportedly stating that the late leader would be absolved of all charges once the truth was established.

CBI sources did not rule out another sitting with General Sundarji, stating that he was crucial for arriving at a conclusion whether there was any necessity for a ''cover-up'' in the deal.

The general was asked whether he had ''any proof'' in support of his statement that there was a cover-up.

Last week, General Sundarji told United News of India that he had been asked in 1985 by the then minister of state for defence, Arun Singh, to review the list of guns recommended by the army headquarters which rated the French gun Sofma above the other guns. He said it was then felt that was an attempt to create a situation in favour of the Sofma gun.

CBI Director Joginder Singh, who was not present when the three lieutenant generals were questioned by the SIT last week, monitored the team's sitting with General Sundarji.

Agency sources said the general was also confronted with the statements of Lieutenant Generals Hridaya Nath Kaul, K B Mehta and G R Malhotra, all of whom reportedly told the SIT that they had expressed themselves against going in for the 155 mm howitzer gun.

General Sundarji had come out sharply against these statements, saying there was even an attempt to exclude the Bofors gun from the priority list. There had been proposals to take into account only the demonstrations conducted within India, which meant consideration of only the French Sofma.

The performance of the Bofors howitzer had earlier been underestimated by showing its range as 24 km instead of its capacity of 30 km.

Sources said the SIT, headed by Additional CBI Director N Revenna Siddiah, raced against time to complete the questionnaire so as to ''avoid bothering'' the general again.