rediff.com: HDW probe revealed nothing against accused: CBI

The probe into the Rs 420 crore HDW submarine deal payoffs case appears to have reached a dead end as the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that it has failed to find any direct evidence against the accused in the case.

CBI, which has completed the probe into the case within the country, could not find any direct evidence against the persons named in the case, its counsel A K Dutt told a division bench comprising Chief Justice A Pssayat and Justice D K Jain. The accused include former Defence Secretary S K Bhatnagar, Non-Resident Indian businessman Gopi Chand Hinduja besides some former officials of the defence ministry and HDW firm.

Dutt said in the absence of the direct evidence the German authorities have 'expressed their helplessness' to probe into the alleged payoffs in their country. He said. "The German authorities are asking for some direct evidence to link the payments to the accused persons."

Submitting a status report of the probe into payment of seven per cent commission by HDW company, allegedly to some senior Indian officials and middlemen, CBI said it was facing difficulty in the probe as investigation in a foreign country could only be done through letters rogatory.

The bench said it understood the difficulty faced by the CBI, but was trying to find out what efforts were being made by the agency to get to the bottom of the case. It told the CBI to complete the probe by September five.

Advocate B L Wadhera, in a public interest litigation, had said that though the matter was with the CBI since 1987, it had not made much progress till date. In an First Information Report registered on March 5, 1990, it had named former additional defence secretary S S Sidhu, former director general(submarine) in naval headquarters M Kondath, former additional financial advisor (ministry of defence) B S Ramaswamy and former vice chief of naval staff M R Schunker as accused in the case.

Besides HDW, another German company AEG Telefonken and a Delhi-based firm Roger India Private Limited were named in the FIR. The agency had alleged that at least seven per cent commission was paid to middlemen in the deal, signed by the Indian government with the HDW company in 1981 for acquiring two advanced submarines.

The investigating agency had secured letters rogatory from a special court in India to facilitate probe into the alleged money transactions conducted in Germany and Switzerland.


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