NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar Jan 11 told the upper house of Indian parliament that he had at no time discussed the Bofors issue with the Congress (I) president Rajiv Gandhi or any other leaders of that party.
In a brief intervention on the discussion regarding the progress of investigations into the Bofors case moved by Madan Lal Khurana (BJP) prime minister said the issue had never been discussed
At this Santosh Mohan Deb (Cong-l) said his party had asked the V P Singh government to table all papers pertaining to the Bofors deal in the house and said the present government should do so now so that the nation knows who the culprit is.
The discussion ended inconclusively.
The Bofors scandal in which it was alleged that top functionaries of the government had received millions of dollars as kickbacks in the deal for the purchase of howitzer field guns from A B Bofors of Sweden was one of the major causes for the defeat of the then Congress-I government at the polls.
Investigations initiated by the Congress-I government itself have continued till today when the Congress-I lends crucial support to the minority government at the center. The Supreme Court also directed that an appeal of H S Chaudhary who had filed the public interest petition before the high court be tagged with other petitions.
The judges also directed that the matter be listed for further hearing before an appropriate criminal beach after four weeks.
Janata Dal counsel Shanti Bhushan and the other counsel did not oppose the adjournment.
Earlier the Supreme Court had also stayed justice Chawla’s prima facie findings on the illegalities in the trial court.
Even without granting time to the respondents the CBI and the union government justice Chawla had on Dec 19 last year 15 minutes after issuing show cause notices to them started hearing the matter so that he could conclude hearings and deliver Judgement before his retirement.
Article extracted from this publication >>
