No evidence against Hindujas: Jethmalani

NEW DELHI, JUNE 8. Mr. Ram Jethmalani, who as Law Minister in 1998, had consented to the chargesheeting of the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors case on the basis of available material, has now found that the chargesheet contained no evidence against them.

In a letter dated May 9 to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, three days before the Supreme Court allowed the Hindujas to go abroad, Mr. Jethmalani termed their plea as ``reasonable'' and requested Mr. Vajpayee to instruct his law officers ``to see that their (Hindujas') reasonable request is granted by the Supreme Court at the hearing of May 11, 2001.'' The letter said the payments received by the Hindujas had nothing to do with the Bofors gun deal. He said ``as a lawyer I have studied the case. I can safely tell you that there is no case against them. These payments have nothing to do with the gun contract. There is no evidence to that effect... Receiving a commission from a Swedish company is no offence under the law. It would be an offence if this money was received on behalf of an Indian public servant.''

When he was the Law Minister, Mr. Jethmalani had participated in a high-level meeting at which it was decided that chargesheet should be filed against the Hindujas on the basis of available documents and a supplementary chargesheet may be filed on receiving further documents from the Swiss authorities, highly placed official sources said.

- PTI

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