GENEVA: The last minute post-ponement of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visit to Sweden and the postponement of the hearings in the Geneva court last week has given rise to serious speculation in both countries that ground is being prepared to put an end to the Bofors investigation in New Delhi and Switzerland. It was learned that at least part of the “administrative” delay for which hearings were postponed in Geneva has to do with some of the appellants lawyers saying that they needed more time to get their papers ready. Whether this delaying tactic has anything to do with the concerted efforts of affected parties in India to scuttle the investigations is not yet known, It appears that New Delhi may be confronted with the following problem how to withdraw the Bofors investigations in Switzer and without appearing to do so? (One highly informed source had this to say. “Looks like they want to stop the proceedings here but obviously do not know how to do it”
The CBIs sudden postponement of its trip to Stockholm this week has only reinforced the impression that there is more to things than meets the eye. It may be recalled that according to Swedish law, criminal investigations into bribes have to be initiated within five years of the payments being made. Unless of course the meeting was duchies dilled to present the Swedes With new fact which is their precondition for going further in the Bofors India deal, in which case the delay caused by the postponement does not make sense. Sweden’s prosecutor general, for one, did not know why the CBI team wanted to see him. “Maybe they have new elements, maybe they want me to look at the case from a new angle but I am a difficult man top persuade, “he said.
The CBIs lack of activity in Switzerland has indeed been remarkable. Even after it became known last week that the Geneva court has decided to postpone the hearings on Affair Bofors, no visit from the Indian side has been scheduled. There have been no enquiries about why the hearings were postponed and no one from New Delhi had any sustained contact with the Government of Indias lawyer in Geneva to keep a tab on the case. Nobody here knows who is in charge of the investigations in India after the change of officers in the CBI. What for instance, would have happened had the hearings taken place and the court asked for additional information which it must be remembered, has to be provided with in a very short period of time?
The last minute fax message which cancelled the CBIs visit to Sweden this week has left more unease than the visit itself. In some six weeks, the deadline there will expire because the last known kickback was paid in April 1987 to Svenska Incorporated. Linked to former Bofors agent Win Chadda, the front company received 264,456,18 from Bofors on March 30,1987 along with a credit note which said 0.96% commission due to you on mate supplied to the secretary Government of India, Ministry of Defence (001-6089) according to our invoices specified below.” Svenska was to receive 100 million Swedish crowns that year. Payments would have continued till 1990 had Swedish state radio not disclosed the scandal 16days later.
Indias interaction with Switzerland has been a veritable rollercoaster ride. Between 1987 and 1989, New Delhi hid behind what they said was Switzer lands unhelpful attitude. That was exposed for what it was in 1990 when accounts were frozen, court proceedings initiated and in a record time of nine months, part of the payoff documents found in a Zurich bank were handed over to the Indian authorities in December 1990. The turn of that year saw the Bofors case being stopped again only to be restated in autumn 1991. Hearings scheduled for the end of January 1992 have now been postponed.
If the Geneva court throws the case out, the Swiss Federal authorities will naturally expect the Government of India to appeal to this country’s Supreme Court. It is being pointed out that to prevent an even greater embarrassment then, every effort may be made to stop the case at this stage first in India and as a result, in Switzerland,
What better proof of guilt than a case stopped midway, one may ask. If indeed attempts are afoot to call off the case. Questions have been asked, an even more obvious one will remain in these difficult times, why is New Delhi not in a hurry to reclaim some $250 million of which the country has been robbed?
Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1992
