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Bofors trail leads to Austria, UK
Raman Kirpal
NEW DELHI, March 22: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team visiting the Channel Islands to investigate the Bofors case suspects that money from the three offshore accounts may have been re-routed to, possibly, Austria and the UK. The team, comprising Superintendent of Police O P Galhotra and legal advisor U S Prasad, have identified the three Channel Island accounts from which the money was transferred to banks and individuals in the two countries. The CBI will now have to prepare letter rogatories for the governments of Austria and UK. So far, letter rogatories have been sent to Swizerland, Sweden and the Channel Islands. In the last case, it took the CBI almost six months to obtain the Government's sanction for sending a letter rogatory. The CBI team, which took a week to collect information from the Channel Islands, including Guernsey and Jersey, has secured documents relating to three accounts being allegedly operated by the two accused in the Bofors case -- Win Chadha and Italian businessmanOttavio Quatrocchi. The pay-off was reportedly routed to these islands through the Swiss bank accounts of three companies -- Mont Blanc, Tulip and Lotus.The Channel Island accounts have not been operated for several months as a big amount has been transferred to UK and Austria. CBI Director D R Karthikeyan declined to comment. Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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