Bofors investigation grinds to a halt
George Iype in New Delhi
The Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into the Bofors gun deal has ground to a halt after Joginder Singh's exit as CBI director.
The CBI's Special Investigation Team -- which questioned the dramatis personae in the kickbacks case -- is virtually jobless as current CBI Director R C Sharma has transferred three key SIT officers.
Revanna Siddhaiah, who headed SIT, is now Bangalore's police commissioner while Deputy Inspector Generals P M Nair and N R Wasan were recently shifted from SIT on the ground that there is not enough work in the Bofors cell.
Nine months after the Swiss government handed over secret bank documents containing the names of those who allegedly received bribes from the Swedish arms manufacturer A B Bofors, it is unlikely the CBI will achieve an early breakthrough in the case.
CBI sources maintain that Sharma has gone "slack" in pursuing the US $ 1.3 million case, on orders from Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral who is keen not to
upset the Congress which fears its late leader Rajiv Gandhi will be dragged into the scandal.
"Sharma lacks the zeal with which Joginder Singh pursued the Bofors case," a CBI officer told Rediff On The NeT. He said the second set of secret documents from Switzerland would have arrived in India had Singh continued in the CBI.
The CBI received the first set of secret documents -- running into more than 500 pages -- from Switzerland
in January. The SIT, which scrutinised the documents, submitted its final report to the
government on April 30. On May 12, the investigating agency sought the home
ministry's permission to prosecute two retired bureaucrats, former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar and Gopi
Arora, former secretary in the PMO, besides former Union external affairs minister Madhavsinh Solanki.
But it has not always enjoyed success.
Earlier this year, SIT's Siddhaiah and Wasan flew to Malaysia to get Italian businessman Ottavio
Quattrocchi, one of the accused in the Bofors case, extradited to India.
But the SIT officers returned empty-handed from Kuala Lumpur when the Malaysian government refused to execute a warrant from a New Delhi court for the Italian's arrest.
Similarly, authorities in Dubai chose to ignore a red corner alert from the CBI for the arrest of former Bofors agent Win Chadha who has lived in the United Arab Emirates for many years now.
CBI officials say the United Front government is indifferent towards the Bofors probe. "We have sent a number of reminders to the government requesting sanction to prosecute former
bureaucrats involved in the case. But the Gujral government has not responded," a
senior CBI officer said.
Sources maintain that Gujral does not want to rake up the Bofors deal as the CBI
report has named former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as one of the accused.
Though the CBI report failed to prove any corruption charges against the late Congress leader, the inaction in the Bofors case suggests that the UF government does not want to do anything that will upset its equation with its main supporter.
Congress president Sitaram Kesri has already informed Gujral that since the CBI report has not indicted Gandhi of bribe-taking, including the late leader's name in the Bofors report is a politically motivated decision by the CBI.
A CBI spokesperson, however, claims the Bofors probe will pick up
momentum after the second lot of secret documents arrives from Switzerland.
The CBI expected to receive the second lot of papers in September, but did not succeed in doing so despite Sharma's visit to Switzerland last month.
The secret papers, the CBI spokesperson said, are now expected to arrive by the end of November.
A petition against the transfer of the documents to India is presently being considered by a cantonal court in Switzerland; the petitioners will have 30 days's time to file an appeal before
the federal court from the date of the cantonal court's order.
But if the cantonal court rejects the petition and the federal court refuses to entertain the
application for reconsidering the petition, the Bofors documents might not arrive in India
before the end of the year.
Bofors: The Smoking Gun
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