CBI to complete Bofors probe in country by month-end

The Central Bureau of Investigation will complete the probe within the country into the Bofors case, involving kickbacks of Rs 640 million to senior bureaucrats and MPs, by this month-end. This, though Additional Director L Revenna Siddaiah, who was heading the 12-member special investigation team has been shifted.

CBI sources said on Thursday that CBI director Joginder Singh himself had taken over the case after Siddaiah was posted as commissioner of police, Bangalore, earlier this week. The SIT had already examined of all those connected with the nearly Rs 15 billion deal, so Siddaiah's absence would not make much difference, the sources said.

Among those examined in the light of the 500-odd page secret Swiss bank documents brought from Berne on January 24 by the CBI were former ministers Arun Singh and Arun Nehru, former army chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji and former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar.

Gopi Arora and Sarla Grewal, who served in the Prime Minister's Office when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister, were questioned, as were about half-a-dozen retired lieutenant-generals. Asked whether G Achari, who has been promoted as additional director in Siddaiah's place, would head the SIT, the sources said no decision had yet been taken.

Joginder Singh had stated after getting the bank documents that the investigations within the country would be over by April 30. Siddaiah also told reporters in Bangalore on Monday that significant progress had been made in the case.

The several holidays in this week apparently stopped the Bureau seeking fresh arrest warrants against Win Chadha, the former Bofors agent named as a recipient of the commission.

Chadha, his late wife Kanta, son Harsh, controversial Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria were named by the CBI as recipients of kickbacks after scrutinising the bank documents.

While the Chadhas are in Dubai, the Quattrocchis are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.