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CBI chief in Geneva to follow up on Bofors probe

CBI director R K Raghavan has gone to Switzerland to pursue the Bofors case for securing the last set of secret bank documents containing details of the alleged payoffs in the Rs 14.36 billion howitzer gun deal, bureau sources confirmed today.

Dr Raghavan is in Geneva where the case is pending with a cantonal court.

The handing over of the bank documents to the CBI has been challenged in the court by the unidentified holder of the secret account, reportedly containing the name of the ultimate beneficiary of the Rs 640 million payoffs in the 1986 deal with the Swedish firm, AB Bofors. The CBI director, expected to return to New Delhi this week-end, is seeking to expedite the case so that the bureau could get the bank documents early, the sources said.

CBI officials, however, ruled out the possibility of Dr Raghavan getting the bank papers during his current visit. ''It will take time since the hearings are still on.''

Completion of the investigations in the decade-old case depended on securing details of the bank account, bureau officials said. The CBI had received the first set of Swiss bank documents relating to five secret accounts in January 1997. After scrutinising the accounts, the bureau had named five -- former Bofors agent Win Chadha, his son Harsh Chadha and late wife Kanta and controversial Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife -- as recipients of the payoffs.

Bureau officials said non-receipt of the final set of documents would, however, not delay the filing of two chargesheets in the case -- one against former external affairs minister Madhavsinh Solanki and the other against those named by the CBI as beneficiaries of the payoffs and former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar. The chargesheets are ready but would possibly be filed only after the special court reopens after the summer vacation, bureau sources said.

President K R Narayanan recently granted sanction to prosecute Solanki who handed over a letter in 1992 to the then Swiss foreign minister during a visit to Davos. The letter allegedly advised the Swiss government to go slow on the Bofors probe. The presidential sanction came in the wake of a similar approval by the government to proceed against Bhatnagar who allegedly misused his official position to conclude the deal in a haste.

UNI

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