NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigations is keeping its fingers crossed, still awaiting confirmation of the landmark ruling by the Federal Court of Switzerland directing the bank authorities of Zurich to hand over all documents relating to the account of Bofors payoffs beneficiaries to Indian investigators.
The judgment, when confirmed, will be the last remaining legal hurdle or the CBI to go after the beneficiaries in earnest as far as the two frozen accounts in Zurich are concerned. The beneficiaries after having lost their appeal in the Federal Court against the two month old ruling of Zurich’s Cantonal Court permitting the CBI access to the bank documents, there is now nothing stopping the investigative agency from going for the kill.
The CBI, however, has preferred to keep mum over the ruling.” We haven’t received any official information about the ruling,” a CBI spokesman said on Nov 17. But sources in CBI disclosed that they were likely to receive the court order soon. But then, even they are not sure about the implication of the input delivered to the CBI, or about the follow up action taken by it.
The sources can’t say when, or if, a team of investigators would be sent to Switzerland to collect the papers and get on the job. It all depends upon the exact wordings of the order and the leeway granted to the CBI, is their safe reply to queries from this newspaper. But one thing they all admit is that Messer A.E. Services, now has its back against the wall, with all possible escape routes closed. And the federal court being the highest court of law in Switzerland, there cannot be any appeal against its judgment.
Early this year, the Swiss government had frozen six different bank accounts holding payoff to the tune of Rs.64 crore four in Geneva and two in Zurich with a decision to transfer bank documents to Indian investigators. The government’s move was opposed by A.E. Services through its shadow companies in the cantonal courts of Geneva and Zurich, The case in ~ the Geneva court is still pending, but the Zurich court overruled appellants plea about two months ago. A.E, Services went in for an appeal against the Zurich court in the Federal Court.
The initial action of freezing the bank accounts was taken by the Swiss government in response to near simultaneous filing of an FIR in the Bofors case in a Delhi court, and receiving Letters Rogatory (request) from CBI, seeking their assistance in probing the case.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 23, 1990
