CBI seeks govt nod to file SLP in Bofors case

New Delhi: With the high-stakes Gujarat elections approaching, the ghost of the Bofors case has returned to haunt the Congress.

The CBI on Friday sought the government’s permission for filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the 2005 Delhi high court order acquitting the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors case. A couple of days ago, Union information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani had raised the Bofors issue targeting the Congress high-command.

The CBI on Friday wrote to the government for reconsideration of its 2005 decision and allow the agency to file a SLP in the apex court in the Bofors case challenging quashing of an FIR in the alleged scam.

In a letter to the department of personnel and training, the CBI conveyed that it wanted to file the SLP challenging the Delhi high court order of May 31, 2005 quashing all charges against Europe-based Hinduja brothers in the Bofors case.

Sources said the CBI was in favour of filing the SLP in 2005, but the then UPA government did not give its nod.

It was felt that the CBI might have to explain for remaining silent over the issue for over two decades.

Agency reports stated that the then Delhi high court judge R.S. Sodhi had on May 31, 2005, quashed all charges against the Hinduja brothers — Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand — and the Bofors company and castigated the CBI for its handling of the case saying it had cost the exchequer about `250 crore. Before the 2005 verdict, another judge of the Delhi high court, Justice J.D. Kapoor (since retired) on February 4, 2004, had exonerated late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the case and directed framing of charge of forgery under Section 465 of the IPC against the Bofors company.

Earlier, Ms Irani speaking to the media had questioned the Congress on it’s silence on the pay-off scam. “For too long the Congress conveniently kept quite. It’s time they answer what is the involvement of its leaders then and now in the Bofors case”, she had gone on record saying.

Taking note of the interview of private detective Michel Hershman, Ms Irani had targeted the Congress high command. Hershman, who is the president of the United States detective agency Fairfax, had claimed in television interviews that VP Singh, then Finance Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, had hired him in 1986 to probe certain issues involving suspected violations of currency control laws by about a dozen wealthy Indians.

Hershman further claimed that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was ‘furious’ when the detective reportedly found a Swiss bank account in which bribe money from the Bofors scandal was parked. Hershman had also claimed that he was offered bribes, twice to stop the investigation and once to ‘damage the reputation of former Prime Minister VP Singh’. The former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, claimed Hershman, then established a Supreme Court commission to look into the circumstances surrounding then finance minister VP Singh’s hiring of Fairfax. The private detective, who was in the national capital last week to address a conference of private detectives, expressed his willingness to testify and help Indian agencies on the Rs 64 crore Bofors gun pay-off scandal.

The CBI will also look into the “facts and circumstances” mentioned by the private detective. “The CBI has learnt of the matter pertaining to the Bofors aired on certain TV channels containing interview of Michael Hershman”, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal had said in a statement issued on Wednesday.