In fiction, Dad, he should be a natural.

NEW DELHI, May 16: A CBI law officer who reportedly told the Bofors SIT that it needed more evidence before preparing charge-sheets has been transferred by director Joginder Singh.

C Sahay, an Additional Legal Adviser, who was transferred to Mumbai yesterday, is said to have told the Special Investigative Team that based on the evidence so far, it was difficult to establish a legally sound case of conspiracy against the accused, including Rajiv Gandhi. Moreover, in the file that was sent to him last month seeking his opinion, Sahay wrote that he agreed with the findings of Investigating Officer (IO) G R Gehrotra that former Army chief Gen K Sundarji should not be excluded from the list of accused since it was Sundarji who ``opted'' for the Bofors after insisting on the French Sofma on six previous occasions. Sahay's opinion was reportedly supported by K Sharma, legal adviser in the Central Bureau of Investigation holding Joint Secretary's rank.

However, a close scrutiny of the Bofors case files shows that Gehrotra's recommendation was overruled by his seniors, including DIG P M Nair and Joint Director R C Dubey. These officers maintained that no case was made out against Sundarji and that Rajiv Gandhi was the prime conspirator in the case. These officers, incidentally, were brought into the team soon after H D Deve Gowda became Prime Minister. Joginder Singh dissolved the Special team under R C Sharma and a new team was constituted under L Revennasiddaiah. Sources in the agency said that Joginder overruled the opinion given by the legal department. He also said that the officers' interpretation was bad in law. The officers had noted that a dead person could not be made an accused and there were several orders of the courts to this effect.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.