Another Rajiv Minister is caught in CBI’s Bofors net

The diplomat’s testimony was routed to the CBI earlier this month by the examining magistrate handling the Bofors case in Berne. Bharadwaj, who also held the Law portfolio in the Rajiv Government, arrived at the CBI headquarters yesterday for questioning. He is likely to face another round of questioning.

CBI officials say the evidence against Bharadwaj is being evaluated and a decision will soon be taken whether he can be clubbed along with former External Affairs Minister Madhav Sinh Solanki, who is likely to be chargesheeted soon on similar grounds of interference with judicial proceedings (under Section 193 of the IPC).

Sources say the Presidential sanction for chargesheeting Solanki came months ago but the CBI is waiting for the certified copy of the memorandum — given by Solanki to Falber in 1992 — from Switzerland before proceeding in the matter.

The Bhardwaj link surfaced soon after the CBI obtained Falber’s own testimony in which he identified Solanki as the person who handed over the memorandum to him during a conference in Davos.

Solani has been questioned by the CBI once in 1997 and again this year. It is to be recalled that Solanki had stepped down as External Affairs Minister once his role in the submission of the document to Falber was exposed. The four-page unsigned memorandum had urged the Swiss Government not to execute the Letter Rogatory (sent by the CBI in January 1990) in view of a pending court case.

The operating part of the memorandum reads, “Until a final decision is taken by Indian courts, no further steps should be taken in Switzerland in this matter.” Quoting legal references and court cases it concluded that the “law of convenience would lie in favor of continuing the order of suspension (of processing the Bofors documents and dispatching them to India)”

Falber has stated in his testimony that Solanki has met him in New Delhi in December 1991 and that Comberneus, then posted as First Secretary in the Swiss Embassy, who was acting as his interpreter, may recall more details about the meeting.

A request for obtaining the testimony of the diplomat was included in the list of additional information which a high-level CBI team carried to Geneva in June. CBI sources say that Comberneu’s testimony is a breakthrough of sorts.

The diplomat is understood to have narrated how first it was Solanki who discussed the CBI’s pending Letter Rogatory (filed in January 1990) with Falber and also told his Minister that another senior Minister would be calling on him soon. The Minister turned out to be Bharadwaj and the issue discussed was the same — how the execution of the LR should be delayed by their Government. Both the meetings took place in Hyderabad House where Falber was staying as a state guest.

The diplomat has also given the CBI fresh information about two of the Hinduja brothers having a meeting with the Swiss Ambassador in New Delhi on the same subject. Sources say this piece of information, too, has emerged as part of evidence for the first time.