Win Chadha ready for trial

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. With the Dubai-based businessman, Mr. Win Chadha, expressing willingness to face trial in the Rs. 64-crore Bofors payoffs case, the Special Court here has asked him to apply for a fresh Indian passport as his earlier one had been impounded.

The Special Judge for CBI cases, Mr. Ajit Bharihoke, asked the authorities to expedite action on Mr. Chadha's application (which will be applied within 48 hours) for grant of passport, if any. He made it clear that this order should not come in the way of the passport authorities deciding the application on its merits.

During the resumed hearing of the case, Mr. Gopal Subramaniam, senior counsel for Mr. Win Chadha, said his client had not wilfully disobeyed the court's summons. He was not served with the summons nor was he aware of the next date of hearing. Counsel said he wanted to remove the impression that Mr. Chadha was evading the summons and was unwilling to face trial.

Counsel said Mr. Chadha had every intention of appearing in court on February 3, provided he was issued a fresh passport and pleaded for suspension of the non-bailable warrant issued against the latter. He brought to the court's notice that Mr. Chadha's earlier Indian passport had been revoked and the passport obtained from the Belize authorities was also impounded at the instance of the Indian authorities. As a result, Mr. Chadha was unable to travel to India.

Fresh passport application

The Special Public Prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr. N. Natarajan, said that once the passport was revoked the authorities could only issue an emergency certificate to enable Mr. Chadha visit India. Once in India, he could apply for a fresh passport, which would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

He said the authorities would provide whatever facilities or travel documents necessary for Mr. Chadha. The court had no jurisdiction to direct the passport authorities to issue a passport.

Mr. Chadha's counsel said that if an emergency certificate was issued it would not be possible for the United Arab Emirates authorities to make a visa endorsement, which could be made only on a regular passport. He wanted the Indian authorities to request the UAE Government to make a formal endorsement on Mr. Chadha's passport to facilitate his easy exit from the UAE. The application for a fresh passport would be applied within 48 hours and some time might be given for its disposal.

In the light of these submissions, the judge adjourned the proceedings to January 20.

CBI allowed to retain fresh documents

The court also allowed the CBI to retain for further investigation a fresh set of documents received from Austria and Luxembourg relating to the Bofors case.

The first set of documents were received in December 1990 and the second set in January 1997. Last month, the CBI brought a set of six documents from the Swiss authorities pertaining to the bank accounts of the alleged recipients of the kickbacks in the Rs. 1,437-crore Bofors gun deal. These documents were presented to the court on January 3 and the judge permitted the CBI to retain them.

Today, the papers obtained from Austria and Luxembourg were presented to Mr. Bharihoke, with a request that the CBI be allowed to keep them for further investigation. After perusing them, the judge acceded to the CBI's request.

The CBI which scrutinised the second set of documents found some leads that the amounts in Switzerland had been transferred to Austria and Luxembourg. Based on this, the authorities wrote to their governments to part with the details believed to be the bank accounts of Italian businessman, Mr. Ottavio Quattrocchi, and Mr. Chadha. These details were furnished in court today.

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