CBI won’t let off Karsan despite settlement offer

In a letter reportedly sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, Alankus, chairman, and Karanci, vice president of Karsan, have offered to provide `performance bonds’ worth 15 million Dollars to be encashed by the National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) in case their company failed to supply urea to the NFL within a stipulated time.

Incidentally, the value of the offered bonds is only half of the Rs 133 crore paid to the Turkish firm by NFL.

The officials have suggested that on the submission of the bonds by them the Indian Government withdraw its request for their extradition. The Swiss Government has already issued the extradition order but this has been challenged in the Swis Federal Court by the accused who have been in judicial custody since their arrest.

In their letter, the officials have stated that they would appeal to the European Court on Human Rights in Strassbourg in case the Swiss Federal Court confirmed their extradition to India to face trial for defaulting in the supply of urea to NFL despite payment.

The Swiss Government has, on a CBI request, also frozen the accounts in which the accused officials deposited 38 million Dollars of the scam money.At the time of freezing, the accounts, however, had only eight million Dollars. Switzerland has informed the CBI that it was considering transferring this amount to India. The officials, in their latest offer, have suggested that the accounts be defrozen.

Investigations have revealed that four million Dollars allegedly paid as kickbacks in the deal was deposited in Dubai and part of it was later transferred through hawala and banking channels to Hyderabad.

Karsan agent in India, Sambasiva Rao, NFL Managing Director C K Ramakrishnan, its suspended Executive Director D S Kanwar and US-based Albama International’s S Nuthi have also been named as accused in a fresh FIR filed by the CBI.