New Delhi: Two executives of a private company have been convicted by a special CBI court of criminal conspiracy and cheating in connection with a 25-year-old deal with Bofors, the Swedish arms manufacturer.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Laxmi Kant Bidwai recently held Abhay V. Udeshi, director of Jayant Oil Mills, and Harish Pandya, an employee of the company, guilty and sentenced them to two years' imprisonment.
Bidwai said it was a case of cheating to cause "damage or harm" to the reputation of the Indian government in the international market. "This is not only an attempt to commit cheating but it is a complete act of cheating," he said.
India had inked a deal with Bofors for the supply of 400 155mm Howitzer guns for the Indian Army. The counter-trade agreement in 1986 was worth Rs 1,437 crore.
One of the conditions was that in return for the sale of the guns, Bofors would import from India commodities such as coffee and castor oil and its byproducts.
The Indian government had nominated the State Trading Corporation (STC) as the nodal agency to monitor the import of castor oil and other commodities by Bofors.
Similarly, Bofors had nominated the London-based Alexander Crichton Associates Ltd to import various commodities from India on its behalf.
Jayant Oil Mills agreed to export castor oil and its byproducts to Bofors through the London-based company.
In 1989-90, Abhay V. Udeshi and Vithaldas G. Udeshi - both directors of Jayant Mills - along with Pandya, an employee, entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the STC.
Pandya prepared false export shipment documents along with a cheque favouring the STC as a service charge without exporting 56MT hydroxystearic acid to Hamburg, West Germany.
The trio also submitted the forged documents to Alexander Crichton Associates Ltd, which forwarded those to the STC, without the actual export of a goods consignment.
In 2004, charges were framed against Abhay, Vithaldas and Pandya. During the trial, Vithaldas died, so the proceedings against him were dropped. PTI
