NEW DELHI, May 17: The Central Bureau of Investigation has overcome a major hurdle in the Rs 133-crore urea scam case with Switzerland agreeing to extradite two top officials of the Turkish firm, Karsan Ltd.

A CBI release today said the Swiss authorities had issued an order for the extradition of Karsan chairman Tunkay Alankus and vice president Cihan Karanci to India to face trial in the case.

The top executives were arrested by the Swiss police on September 16, 1996 at the request of the CBI and have been in judicial custody there since then. The two accused, however, have a right to appeal against the extradition order to the federal court, highest Swiss court, within 30 days.

CBI director Joginder Singh said here today that the Bureau was also confident of recovering the nearly eight million dollars in the frozen Karsan account in Switzerland. The Swiss authorities have informed the CBI that they would soon decide on the money.

About 38 million dollars had been remitted to their account by the National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL) as advance for the controversial import of urea.

The bank account was frozen at the request of the CBI, following which the Bureau sought the extradition of the Karsan executives on October 10, 1996. e¬Ut›Œ@¼Tt›politician. ``It's worse than Bihar,'' the crusader remarked. Asked about his bypassing Chief Minister Manohar Joshi while forwarding the cases of corruption to the Governor and the Prime Minister, Hazare indicated that he had lost faith in the fairness of the State Government agencies.

``And not only me. Ask common citizens and they too will say the same,'' he wrote. Hazare is annoyed by the State Government's inaction over the 400 cases of corruption he had sent to the Chief Minister earlier.

He nodded affirmatively to the idea that his anti-corruption stir was being used by a few in power to achieve their own political goals. He, however, said he was not bothered about the political designs of his ``informers'' since the cases brought to him ``were serious enough.''

Reacting to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's declaration at a public meeting in Kolhapur that a trustee of the Hind Swaraj Trust gave him a file on misdemeanours in the trust, Hazare wrote that he wanted Thackeray to come out with the truth. ``Thackeray should disclose the details and the name of the trustee,'' he wrote.

Hazare also came down heavily on the ``blatant lies'' of the Shiv Sena supremo. It was unfortunate that people claiming the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji were resorting to lies, he said. The State Government should prove Thackeray's allegations of misappropriation of Rs 22 crore meant for the model village scheme against the Hind Swaraj Trust, he challenged. Meanwhile, at Puntamba in Ahmednagar, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today was unambiguous while giving a clean chit to Hazare's Hind Swaraj Trust, yet in the same breath added that he was gathering information on activities and financial transactions of the trust.

The Hind Swaraj Trust was given grants to the tune of Rs 1.05 crore and the trust has carried out all its transactions through cheques, the CM asserted. Anna Hazare would soon end his fast-unto-death, Joshi added while replying to a volley of questions by reporters on allegations of misuse of Rs 22 crore meant for the model village project made against Hazare by Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

Meanwhile, the village of Ralegan Siddhi observed a bandh with about hundred villagers undertaking a token fast on Friday supporting their mentor Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death and maun vrat. The tea-stalls and other shops remained closed for the day, reports reaching here said.