GENEVA: India has told authorities in Switzerland the there is no urgency in the Bofors in. investigations and that the matter can be suspended even as the Geneva cantonal court has scheduled hearings on the case for April 3.
“From a level higher than mine I have been told that India does not regard this matter as urgent there is no need to get any decision on and that the dossier can be held in suspension” said Dr. Pierre Schmid chief International assistance in criminal matters federal police office Bern. “I cannot ignore this message in my brief to the Geneva Cantonal Count which has scheduled hearings for April 3″ he said.
This confirms what has been suspected all along_-that new Delhi _would like to put an end to the investigations in Switzerland but is faced with the problem of not knowing how to do it worse this also confirms what some of the appellant lawyers have been saying in Geneva before and after the CBl officials recent visit that the.
Bofors investigations would be Withdrawn or suspended indefinitely that a message to this effects would be received before the Geneva hearings that there would be nothing in writing but a clear Signal conveying it would be sent {0 very high authorities in this country.
Dr. Schmid did not want to Comment on where the message asking him to put the case in cold storage came from but since he is very senior official anything higher than him can only be political. When asked if he had received this message from the office of the foreign minister Dr. Schmid said “no comments.” However he said he will have to make further enquiries at the federal foreign office to ascertain the legal aspects of such a message and its repercussions on the investigations here.
A crucial detail in this significant but not unexpected development is that the message was conveyed to the Swiss authorities before the visit of the CBI officials two weeks ago. If a political message preceded the CBIs visit the obvious question what was the visit to Switzerland and Sweden all about? An even more significant question is who is in-charge of the investigation in India?
Dr. Schmid has been invited by the Geneva Court to present his case on behalf of the government of India next week. “I would have liked to tell them there is a Supreme Court decision in India upholding the investigations and the we should go ahead on that basis now there is his message from India asking us to ut everything in cold storage and that makes things very difficult Dr. Schmid told the Indian Express
It may be recalled that all but one of the accounts into which Bofors paid the illegal kickback for the bofors gun deal are in banks in Geneva. Money from the only payoff in a Zurich Bank (AE Services Nordfinanz Bank Zurich) has also been transferred to an account in Geneva at the April3 hearings the cantonal court has to decide whether or not it can admit India’s request for assistance in this matter.
With confirmation coming from Swiss authorities that India wants the matter suspended New Delhi has a lot of explaining to do especially since it has not stopped telling anyone who cares to listen that it is pursuing the culprits as seriously as possible.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1992
