CBI files Swiss papers in court, seeks to retain them

The district judge said, "There is no urgency. The application seeking to retain the documents (will) be put up before special judge Ajit Bharihoke on January 3, next year."

The third and final set of documents numbering D-1 to D-71 and a letter dated August 31, 1999 from a Geneva court directing the Swiss Federal Office at Berne to give the papers to the Indian agency were brought to the court by CBI officials.

The documents were brought to Delhi from Berne by a high-level CBI team after last ditch efforts by appellants to prevent the transfer of papers to India failed.

The agency told the court that these documents were obtained as a sequel to the letters rogatory issued by then special judge R K Jain on February 7, 1990. The first and second set of documents were received in December 1990 and in January 1997 respectively, it said.

CBI sources said scrutiny of these documents was expected to take about two weeks and additional chargesheet would be filed depending on what they reveal.

The documents were handed over to the Indian authorities at Berne on Wednesday after the Geneva court judge P Perrandin wrote a letter in this regard to Andre Fels of the federal office for police matters on August 31.

The handing over of documents to India was facilitated after the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police confirmed that the appeal to prevent the transfer of these documents had been rejected. However, it is not yet clear as to who was trying to block the transfer of these documents.

The CBI had on October 22 chargesheeted Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, Chadha, former Bofors company chief Martin Ardbo and AB Bofors — now renamed as Celsius — for their alleged role in the Rs 1,437 crore gun deal in March 1986.