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Court asks CBI to re-examine V P Singh in HDW deal

The Central Bureau of Investigation will re-examine former prime minister V P Singh in the HDW submarine case within two weeks.

Indian agents allegedly received kickbacks in the Rs 4.2 billion submarine deal with German firm HDW, signed in 1987 when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister.

A Delhi high court division bench asked the CBI to procure documents on the deal from the Indian embassy in Bonn and the Union defence ministry in Delhi, and produce the papers in court within four weeks.

The bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice S K Mahajan, expressed dismay over the tardy pace of investigation since 1990.

"Why didn't the CBI want to talk to Mr Singh when he was willing to help the agency? Seven years have passed and you have not done anything," the judges said.

They asked senior government counsel Rakesh Tikku to produce the latest progress report on the investigation. The next hearing is on July 29.

V P Singh, who was finance and defence minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet, will be re-examined within two weeks, Tikku said. A request has been sent to Singh, seeking time for his examination.

The former prime minister had been questioned in October 1997.

The judges wanted the CBI to get translated into English part of the German company's handbook on the corporate tax assessment for 1980-84, which related to business expenses and promotion expenditure.

The bench said the investigating agency should place on record the reported telex message sent by then Indian ambassador to Germany, C J Ajmani. He had said that the German firm was not ready to reduce the cost of the deal because it had paid seven per cent commission to public servants and defence officials in India.

Any file prepared by the Indian Embassy in Germany on this should also be produced before the court, the judges directed.

The petitioner, Dr B L Wadher had asked the court to direct the CBI to conduct its probe with 'promptitude, unmindful of the politicians and bureaucrats involved in the crime.'

He has been demanding that the agency be directed to interrogate V P Singh because he was defence minister at that time (1987) and knew facts which were vital for the investigation.

The CBI's first information report said the offences included criminal breach of trust, embezzlement, bribery, corruption and criminal misconduct by public servants, middlemen and companies.

UNI

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