NEW DELHI, JAN 28: The decision to award the contract for supply of 155 mm Howitzer guns to Swedish company Bofors was taken in "haste", Sarla Grewal, secretary to the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has said in her statement to officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"On seeing the files now I would say that it is definitely a high speed decision which is very uncommon in government. Unless somebody decides so, it should not have happened," Grewal told the investigating agency.
"…..It was a very fast decision in that so many persons of various departments have seen the file in the shortest possible time," she said."I do not know the reasons for the hurry…..," she told CBI in her statement .
The statement now forms a part of the CBI chargesheet in the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoffs case.
Eight high-ranking officials, including the then defence minister, had appended their signature on the file on March 13, 1986, just one day before the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi himself signed thepapers, she said.
On being asked about the the unusual hurry with which the files moved for getting the approval of letter of intent, she said, "…. the files never came to me and I was not kept in picture, though I was certainly in the office. …I do not know the reasons for the hurry as I was not in picture at all.”