CBI asked to file status report on HDW deal within two months

Expressing dissatisfaction over the progress in the 10-year-old case into the Rs 4.2 billion HDW submarine deal, the Delhi high court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a status report within two months.

A division bench consisting of Justices Mahinder Narain and S K Mahajan studied the CBI's confidential report before observing that there was nothing much in it and that the matter should be probed expeditiously and vigorously.

Hearing a public interest petition filed by lawyer Dr B L Wadehra, the judges gave the CBI two months to complete the investigation and file its progress report. The case has been adjourned to October 20.

The judges, after perusing the CBI file, handed to it on Tuesday morning, returned it by afternoon, stating there was nothing substantiative in the report and asked whether the CBI counsel had read it. The counsel replied that he had and that this was the latest position on the investigation.

Asked why the CBI had not interrogated one of the six persons named in the FIR, the CBI counsel stated he was not aware of this discrepancy and would ascertain the reason. Neither judges nor counsel actually named the individual.

In its FIR, the CBI had named as accused industrialist G P Hinduja, former defence secretary and current Sikkim Governor S K Bhatnagar, former additional secretary (defence) G S Sidhu, additional finance secretary to the defence ministry B S Ramaswamy, Indian navy Captain M Kondaath and then naval vice-chief Vice-Admiral Shunker.

Since the investigation in the case was on, the CBI counsel stated that the petition should be dismissed. "Let us probe the case properly for a few months and we are ready to come before the court for any sort of scrutiny," he added.

Dr Wadehra submitted that there were several facts which had to be ascertained, one being the statement by former prime minister V P Singh before the Jain Commission which is probing the conspiracy aspect of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

When the court asked what the case had to do with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination inquiry, Dr Wadehra, who was one of those who appeared before the Jain Commission, said the statement was very relevant, especially since it was made during an in-camera hearing. He would have to take Justice M C Jain's permission before passing the information to the court or the CBI, he said.

The judges said if the information was relevant, it could be passed to the CBI with due permission of the Jain inquiry commission. The court also asked the CBI to ascertain if Germany made payments as commission and if the German firm had paid any such commission to anybody in India.

In his petition Dr Wadehra stated that in 1987, when V P Singh was the Union minister of defence in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet, he (Singh) received a telex message from the then Indian ambassador to Germany J C Ajmani stating that the Germans could not reduce the price of HDW submarines because the company had already paid seven percent commission to Indian middlemen.

Dr Wadehra alleged that Singh informed the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who showed indifference to the matter. Singh set up an inquiry into the affair but soon resigned. Dr Wadehra said he did not know what happened to that inquiry.

He said that Singh's statement before the Jain Commission threw fresh light on what happened between him (Singh) and Rajiv Gandhi regarding the seven per cent commission.

The CBI FIR stated that the accused had entered unto a criminal conspiracy with the German firm, getting submarines sold to India at a higher price than the prevailing market price.

The FIR further stated that the German firm paid over Rs 300 million to middlemen and Indian government officials as commission to secure the contracts for submarines and torpedoes. In exchange, the Indians overlooked the advantages of Kockums of Sweden, whose submarines were cheaper and technically superior.