CBI gives week's time to Hindujas

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 14. The Central Bureau of Investigation has issued notices to the Hinduja brothers based in London and Geneva to ``join'' the probe into the Bofors payoffs case that has gone on for over a decade. The agency has given the NRI brothers a week's time to respond to the notice.

CBI sources said the agency had sent notices to London-based Mr. Gopichand Hinduja, Mr. Srichand Hinduja and the Geneva-based Mr. Prakash Hinduja and asked them to come to Delhi for examination.

The notices have been issued through the Indian diplomatic missions in Geneva and London, sources said. While the Hindujas have repeatedly denied any involvement in the Rs. 1,437- crore Bofors gun deal, it is widely known that they have blocked the transfer of Swiss bank documents to India over the past decade. Their appeal against the transfer of documents was defeated at three levels in Swiss courts. While the first set of documents was brought home in January 1997 by the CBI, it got the second set from authorities in Berne on December 19.

The CBI move to send notices to the influential NRI family gains importance, particularly after it has devoted some time in scrutinising the second set of documents which were ordered to be retained by the agency by a Delhi Special Court.

Though the sources would not comment on the progress made in scrutinising the second set of Swiss documents, they maintained that the CBI could be looking for ``clues'' that in some way or the other could link the Hinduja brothers to another stream of payments running into a few crores of rupees.

Significantly, the 1987 diary maintained by the then A.B. Bofors chief, Mr. Martin Ardbo, had given indications on the involvement of Rajiv Gandhi, Olof Palme, Mr. Arun Nehru, the Hinduja brothers, Mr. Ottavio Quattrocchi and others in the payoffs affair.

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