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Indo-UAE treaty could help in Bofors case: Madhavan

The extradition treaty signed between India and the United Arab Emirates 10 days ago will help bring former Bofors agent, Win Chadha, to Delhi to face trial in the Bofors kickbacks case, according to former Central Bureau of Investigation joint director K Madhavan.

Win Chadha, among the six the CBI named as accused in the chargesheet in the Bofors case, has been staying in Dubai ever since the news broke out about the alleged payment of kickbacks in the Rs 14.36 billion gun deal with Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors in 1986.

The CBI has been unable to secure his arrest for interrogation in the case despite letters rogatory issued by a Delhi court and a red corner notice by Interpol. Madhavan, who resigned as joint director following differences with the then CBI director S K Dutta, said today that it would be "very difficult, if not impossible" for the government to get the name of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi deleted from column two of the chargesheet. Gandhi is named as an accused has not been recommended for trial since he's dead.

Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows the public prosecutor to withdraw the name of any person being tried after securing permission from the central government and with the consent of the court, Madhavan said.

''However, Rajiv Gandhi was neither prosecuted nor tried in the Bofors case," he said. Asked whether deleting Gandhi's name would weaken the CBI's case, Madhavan said that would become clear only after the witnesses were examined.

Home minister L K Advani recently said in the Lok Sabha that the government would consider deleting Gandhi's name from the chargesheet. The demand had been made in the House by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Meanwhile, CBI sources said the extradition treaty signed with the UAE would help arrest of about 15 persons against whom letters rogatory had been issued. Besides Win Chadha, others who could be arrested include underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees Ibrahim, and the Memon brothers, Chota Shakeel and Abu Salem who have been named as accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts in which more than 300 people were killed.

Abu Salem is also an accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. The sources, however, clarified that the treaty did not guarantee instant arrest and extradition of the accused wanted by India. Any request made under the extradition treaty can be challenged by the accused in the courts in the country of their stay.

The sources cited the case of playback singer Nadeem, also wanted in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. Nadeem, staying in Britain ever since the murder in August 1997, has been evading arrest by challenging the extradition request of mumbai police. A British court recently conceded the extradition demand but Nadeem has challenged it in a higher forum.

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