The BJP on Wednesday kept up the pressure on the Congress over the new revelations in the Bofors issue with Union Minister Smriti Irani reiterating the demand for the Congress leaders to speak up on the matter.
For its part, the CBI said it will look into the “facts and circumstances” of Bofors scam mentioned by private detective Michael Hershman in interviews. The controversy over the Bofors pay off has gained a fresh life after Hershman’s statement.
The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to hear a petition filed by a BJP leader and advocate Ajay Agarwal to have a fresh look at the issue in the Rs 64-crore Bofors payoff case after a media report suggested a financial quid pro quo for the Rs 1,437 crore Howitzer gun deal in 1986. The High Court had dismissed the case as it found no concrete evidence to prove the charges, besides most of the accused not being alive.
Agarwal charged that CBI failed to approach the Supreme Court with the appeal within the 90-day deadline after the High Court verdict. He said it was reported that the law Ministry then had not given permission to the agency, despite the fact that “the High Court order was illegal.”
Justice RS Sodhi, since retired, of the Delhi High Court had on May 31, 2005, quashed all charges against the Hinduja brothers — Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand — and the Bofors company and castigated the CBI for its handling of the case saying it had cost the exchequer about Rs 250 crore.
On Wednesday, continuing her onslaught on the Congress Irani sought to put the Opposition party again in the dock on the Bofors issue, citing the claims of Hershman’s comments on the issue. Quoting from the private detective’s interviews to some media houses, she said he was asked by then Finance Minister VP Singh to look into the Bofors deal but was later offered bribe and then given death threat when he stumbled on the evidence of bribe.
The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi shifted Singh to the Defence Ministry while Hershman was also asked to implicate Singh, she said.
Quoting him, she said the owner of a Pakistani-run Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which had been allegedly involved in money laundering and other financial crimes, or his representative met Rajiv with a large suitcase.
Following this, the bank, which was shut after a CBI raid in connection with the Bofors deal, was allowed to open and its detained officials were released, she said.
“Who were offering bribeIJ Why did a Congress leader (Rajiv Gandhi) choose to silence his own Minister (Singh)IJ
“For too long the Congress has kept conveniently quiet. It is time that it answers as to what was the role of Congress leaders then and now,” she asked, adding that many of them are still around. The Congress has had a tendency to either bribe or give death threats to people looking into dubious deals involving its leaders, she alleged.
Hershman’s interviews have brought to life the “sordid saga” of Bofors. Irani parried queries asked by the Congress at a press conference in which it questioned then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s, now prime minister, 100 trips in private chartered flights.
She said the Congress was trying to prove its leaders involved in the Bofors case and Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law involved in controversial land deals, innocent. Its leaders have not responded to Hershman’s claims or fresh charges against Vadra, she said.
The Information and Broadcasting Minister said the Congress should have filed a defamation suit against Hershman if it believed he was wrong as she noted that Jay Shah, the son of BJP chief Amit Shah, had filed a Rs 100-crore suit against a news portal over a story on his business.
At the Press conference, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited the BJP’s victory in 1,311 seats against 312 of the Congress in Maharashtra local body polls to claim that people have rejected the opposition’s narrative against the Modi Government.
“For the BJP, the party is family and for the Congress, the family is party,” he said, in a dig at the Gandhi family.