CBI to seek fresh arrest warrants against Chadha

The Central Bureau of Investigation is to move Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke's court in the next two or three days for issuing fresh non-bailable warrants against Win Chadha, one of the alleged recipients of the Rs 640 million kickbacks in the Bofors gun deal, sources said on Thursday, April 3.

Chadha, a former Bofors agent, is living in Dubai.

The application for fresh non-bailable warrants is being finalised and would seek Chadha's arrest on the ground of clinching evidence surfacing against him, they said.

The sources claimed that the 500-odd secret Swiss bank documents received from authorities in Berne in January have revealed that Chadha had received money from Swede arms manufacturer Bofors around the time the deal for the 155 mm Howitzer gun was signed in March 1986.

The CBI, after decoding the bank documents received from Berne, has identified Chadha, his late wife Kanta and son Harsh, Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria as recipients of money from Bofors.

The investigating agency expects to receive another set of documents in June from the Swiss authorities regarding the accounts in which the Bofors kickbacks were paid.

Chadha had left the country soon after the first information report about the alleged kickbacks in the Rs 14.37 billion deal was filed under the V P Singh government in December 1989.

The special court had issued non-bailable warrants against Chadha in 1990. These were quashed by the Delhi high court in 1992. The CBI had moved a special leave petition against the high court order in the Supreme Court which was disposed of on Thursday after the federal government told the apex court that it planned to move the appropriate court for issue of fresh warrants against Chadha.

Chadha has denied the bribery allegations and claimed that the money paid to him by Bofors was by way of ''winding up'' charges as they were terminating their contract with him.

UNI