CBI bid to restart HDW deal probe stonewalled

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: The CBI's attempt to restart investigations into the Rs 465-crore HDW submarine deal has run into rough weather with the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: The CBI’s attempt to restart investigations into the Rs 465-crore HDW submarine deal has run into rough weather with the Swiss authorities insisting that they will consider the Letter Rogatory (LR) in this case only after the Bofors papers case is settled.

The Union Cabinet had last week approved the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request for issue of Letters Rogatory (LR) to Switzerland and Germany for information regarding payoffs made in the deal. CBI sources said that although formal approval of the Union Cabinet was received by the agency yesterday, it will approach the designated court for the issue of LR only after the Swiss courts decide on the fate of bank documents relating to the sixth and final appellant in the Bofors case.

It is believed that the Swiss authorities have become sceptical of the seriousness of the Indian investigators in view of their experience in earlier Bofors-related cases, where they feel the Indian government did not really want to pursue the case to its logical conclusion.

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Sources said that the LR to the Swiss authorities seeks information on certain secret accounts in Swiss banks into which huge kickbacks in the HDW submarine deal are suspected to have been paid. Although the German authorities had earlier said that payment of commission was not an offence in their country, it has been decided to send the LR again to seek information on the alleged involvement of officials of HDW, the German firm which supplied the submarines. In fact, it is on the assumption that the Swiss courts will decide the appeal of the sixth account holder in the Bofors case soon that the CBI had requested the Government to approve the issue of fresh LRs to these countries. The release of the last batch of Bofors-related documents by the year-end depends on an out-of-court settlement between the Swiss court and the sixth account holder (which will shorten the otherwise long drawn legal process).

CBI sources said that unless the details of bank accounts suspected to have received the commission are made available, it will be very difficult to prove corruption charges against senior bureaucrats and others named in the FIR.

According to the CBI, the public servants and middlemen, who allegedly received kickbacks in the HDW deal, were also involved in the Bofors case.

Among the accused in the FIR are former defence secretary SK Bhatnagar, former additional secretary in the Defence Ministry, SS Sidhu, former Naval vice-chief, Vice-Admiral MR Schunker and Additional Financial Advisor in Defence Ministry BS Ramaswamy.