Bofors company to stand trial

Bofors company to stand trial
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JAN 21: Swedish arms manufacturer A B Bofors, which bagged the controversial Howitzer gun contract in 1986, has submitted itself before a designated CBI court here to stand trial in the Rs 64-crore pay-offs case.

In an application before Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke, the company, now known as Kartongen Kemi Och Farvaltning AB, said it has appointed Delhi-based advocate Punita Singh to represent it during the trial proceedings and requested the court to accept her as its representative.

Singh’s appointment has already been ratified by the Board of Directors of the company after she gave her consent in writing, company’s counsel Alok Sen Gupta told the court on Friday.

Gupta requested the court to accept Singh’s appointment as the company’s representative for the purpose of trial as ‘‘it was carrying on its activities in Sweden and had neither any business nor any officer or employee posted in India.’’

The Court asked the CBI to file its reply to the company’s plea on January 30, the next date of hearing. In its first chargesheet filed on October 22, 1999, CBI accused A B Bofors of paying huge kickbacks to its Indian agent Win Chadha and Kuala Lumpur-based Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi to bag the contract for the supply of 155-mm Howitzer field guns to India despite a commitment that there would be no middlemen in the deal. Apart from Chadha, Quattrocchi and Bofors Company, CBI also named former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar and the then chief of Bofors Company Martin Ardbo as accused in the first chargesheet.

In the second chargesheet filed on October nine last year, CBI alleged that the company also paid about 81 million Swedish kroners to Europe-based three Hinduja brothers -- S P Hinduja, G P Hinduja and P P Hinduja -- to bag the prestigious gun deal.

Bofors company had appeared before the Special Court for the first time on November 20 last through its counsel and sought a four-week time from the court to respond to the summons issued to it following filing of the first chargesheet.Gupta informed the court that the company had changed its name twice and at present it was known as M/S Kartongen Kemi Och Forvaltning AB.

In September, 1991, AB Bofors had changed its name to M/S Nobel Tech AB which was again renamed as M/S Kartongen Kemi Och Forvaltning AB in August last year, Gupta said.

The company submitted that it would cause great hardship to it to appoint a Swedish representative as it would be difficult for such representative to attend the day to day proceedings in the case in India from such a long distance.Apart from inconvenience, it would also entail huge expenses if a Swedish representative came to attend trial proceedings on each date of hearing, Gupta said.

He requested the court to accept Punita Singh as the company’s representative for the purpose of trial because the trial might suffer if a Swedish national was appointed to attend the proceedings and he/she failed to appear before the court on any date for reasons beyond his/her control.

CBI man off to Malaysia

NEW DELHI: A CBI official has left for Malaysia to assist its counsel in the extradition proceedings against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the Rs 64-crore Bofors pay-off case, beginning tomorrow, agency sources said here on Sunday. Superintendent of Police Umesh of Special Investigation Group has left for Kuala Lumpur to assist counsel Cyrus Das during the proceedings, the sources said.

Quattrocchi was arrested by Malaysian authorities on December 20 and later released on bail on ‘‘stringent conditions’’.

Quattrochhi, who represented Italian firm Snam Progetti in India for several years and was close to the Gandhi family, had left India in 1993 before CBI could secure an arrest warrant against him from court.

CBI had chargesheeted Quattrochhi on October 22, 1999, accusing him of receiving $7343941.98 for clinching the Rs 1,437-crore deal for Swedish firm A B Bofors in 1986 in the supply of 400 155-mm howitzer guns to India despite the Government making it clear that there would be no middleman involved in the deal.