NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Win Chadha gets bail in Bofors case

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Win Chadha, accused in the Rs 640-million Bofors pay-off case, was granted bail Tuesday morning by Central Bureau of Investigation Judge Ajit Bharihoke.

Chadha had been declared an absconder after he left India in 1988 without seeking the CBI's permission.

The judge asked Chadha to surrender his passport to the investigating agency, and imposed two restrictions: he should not leave the country without the court's permission and should join the investigations as and when the CBI requires him.

Chadha executed a personal bond of Rs 200,000 and a surety of the same amount. Sailesh Babu, his son's friend, was his guarantor.

The court proceedings lasted less than 10 minutes. Dr Ranawat, Chadha's physician who had accompanied him to India from Dubai, was with him when he appeared in the court.

Defence counsel Ritu Singh Mann said that since former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar was already out on bail and the investigating agency had finished investigating the case, her client should be freed. She cited Chadha's medical condition as another reason for releasing him on bail.

CBI counsel Natrajan opposed the plea, saying that the accused had fled the country once and could not be trusted.

Chadha had flown into New Delhi last week and immediately got himself admitted in the Batra hospital. Tuesday morning, as most of the roads in the capital were closed because of United States President Bill Clinton's visit, a CBI team led by Deputy Inspector General O P Galhotra drove him to the Tees Hazari court an hour before the scheduled 1000 hours IST.

Chadha entered the court in a wheelchair and did not utter a word during the proceedings.

Mann maintained that her client was innocent, which he would prove in a court of law soon. She denied that Chadha had struck a deal with the investigating agency and that he would act as an approver in the case.

"The only deal that we have had with the CBI is that we asked them to give us travel documents so that he could come to India. As the Government of India on the request of the investigating agency had cancelled the travel documents of my client, he was in no position to come earlier. Once he was given valid documents he came to India and went to the court," Mann told rediff.com.

The next hearing is on April 24.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report