Hindujas' plea to be heard on Monday

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. The three Hinduja brothers, accused in the Rs. 64 crores Bofors payoffs case, today moved the Delhi High Court against the special court's order rejecting their plea to leave India. The revision petitions filed by the Hinduja brothers - S.P. Hinduja, G.P. Hinduja and P.P. Hinduja to set aside the trial court's order are likely to come up for hearing on Monday.

In the supplementary chargesheet the CBI had accused the three brothers of receiving 81 million Swedish kroners as kickbacks from A.B. Bofors company in the Howitzer gun deal.

The trial court had on February 1 accepted the CBI's objections that they might not come back to India to face trial if the proceedings went against them and dismissed the applications.

The Judge had pointed out that S.P. Hinduja and G.P. Hinduja obtained British citizenship after the FIR was filed in the Bofors case in 1990. Similarly, the Judge said P.P. Hinduja had obtained Swiss citizenship and under Swiss law a citizen could not be extradited without his written consent. Hence if no consent was given it would be impossible for the CBI to get him extradited to face the trial.

Notwithstanding the assertion by the Hinduja brothers that they had fully cooperated with the CBI in the investigation and because of their absence from their business headquarters, their global business running into billions of dollars had suffered, the Judge turned down their plea to go abroad.

While the CBI had maintained that during the interrogation they were very ``evasive'' and did not answer the main issue at all, the three brothers asserted that they had fully cooperated with the CBI in the investigation and they would continue to do so.

The Hinduja brothers were granted bail on January 19 soon after they appeared before the court but were directed not to leave India without prior permission.

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