Ordnance scam: CBI to file chargesheet, get l firms blacklisted

EagleOne

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The CBI is set to recommend blacklisting of Indian and foreign defence firms for alleged payment of bribes in the 2009 Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) scandal.

The CBI, which had arrested former OFB chairman Sudipta Ghosh and several of his associates, has finalised its chargesheet and will be filing it in the next few days in the special court in Kolkata.

Attached to the chargesheet will be pages of phone transcripts as proof of bribes collected by Ghosh from agents and middlemen of defence companies at the end of his two-year tenure.

Sources in the Kolkata unit of the CBI said a report containing recommendations for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will be submitted shortly after the filing of the chargesheet.

Both Israel Military Industries (IMI) and Singapore Technologies are expected to be named in the list of companies that indulged in alleged corrupt practices while dealing with Ghosh.

After the OFB scandal came to light in May 2009, the MoD blacklisted seven firms whose names figured in monitored phone conversations. At that time, many in the defence industry called it a knee-jerk reaction.

Subsequently, the MoD obtained the opinion of Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati and the blacklisted firms were permitted to take part in field trials pending finalisation of the CBI probe. However, the AG was of the opinion that till such time the CBI completed its inquiry, the firms should not be allowed to sign contracts for procurement or joint ventures.

The CBI chargesheet is expected to elaborate how Ghosh and his associates like Ramesh Nambiar, Pradeep Rana and Ashish Bose (all arrested along with him) had been on an alleged bribe-collection spree after his retirement in April 2009.

The CBI, for instance, claims to have evidence that kickbacks were collected from Singapore Technologies Kinetics for the proposed joint manufacture of a 5.56 mm carbine and from IMI for a unit in Nalanda for manufacture of 155mm bi-modular charge systems (BMCS).

Other companies against whom the CBI claims it has evidence of bribes routed to Ghosh are Rheinmetall Air Defence of Zurich and T S Kishan and Co, a Delhi-based company.
 

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