His business successes which started with the international distribution rights for the Bollywood blockbuster movie 'Sangam' in 1964 made him one of the richest in Britain but it was the Bofors scam that made Srichand Parmanand Hinduja famous, or rather infamous, back home. SP Hinduja, as he was known, died in London on Wednesday after a prolonged illness. He was 87, a family spokesperson said. Born in a business family in Karachi, British India, he and his two younger brothers were accused of receiving payments totalling Rs 64 crore in illegal commissions to help Swedish gunmaker AB Bofors secure an Indian government contract.
The Asian Age on Thursday published an article by the principal investigator in the case.
It said it was not convinced with the grounds of the CBI to condone over 4,500 days' delay in filing the appeal. The CBI had filed the appeal on February 2 this year.
After lot of deliberation, the CBI this year got the nod from the NDA government to file an appeal in the apex court.
Over the years, a noticeable unpleasantness began to develop between senior and junior, Sorabjee and Salve. Salve gave credit, for his rise in the profession, to Nani Palkhivala, and not to Sorabjee. This hurt Sorabjee, though he never admitted it.
The CBI had moved the trial court seeking permission for further probe in the matter saying it had come across fresh material and evidence.
In the wake of the 2G acquittals, here are a few high-profile cases in which question marks were raised by various courts over the CBI's probe.
The CBI filed the appeal against the May 31, 2005 decision of the high court by which all accused, including Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers, were discharged from the Rs 64-crore pay-off case.