First time after Bofors, CBI names 2 middlemen

The CBI has registered preliminary inquires in four defence deals struck during the NDA regime and in one of them, it has accused—for t...

The CBI has registered preliminary inquires in four defence deals struck during the NDA regime and in one of them, it has accused—for the first time after Bofors—two private citizens for allegedly acting as agents despite an official ban on middlemen.

The names of two Delhi-based businessmen, Sudhir Chaudhry and Vipin Khanna, figure in the PE in the 1998-99 procurement of Hand-Held Thermal Imagers (HHTIs).The other three deals relate to Kargil purchases which include spares for 155-mm guns, thermal socks and tyres. Both were unavailable for comment until late tonight.

The CBI’s PE states, ‘‘There are allegations of involvement of middlemen in the procurements. It is alleged that one Sudhir Chaudhry acted as middleman/agent on behalf of M/S EL-Op of Israel and Vipin Khanna on behalf of both EL-Op and M/S CSF Thompson.’’ Both have been accused of acting with ‘‘unknown public servants of the Ministry of Defence and Army Headquarters’’ in acts of ‘‘commission and omission’’ violating procurement procedures.

THE FOUR CASES

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More