The Defence Ministry is examining a recommendation of the CBI to blacklist six firms, including four international companies, for their alleged involvement in the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) scam.
Sources in the Ministry told The Hindu that the communication to this effect was received on Wednesday and put up for consideration at the top level. Reports, quoting sources in the CBI, said the four companies were one each from Singapore, Israel, Russia and Switzerland.
According to the CBI, which filed a chargesheet on June 30, a Letter Rogatory was issued by the CBI court in Kolkata to the Central authority in Singapore seeking assistance, and this was pending execution.
Last year, Defence Minister A.K. Antony put on hold all acquisition cases in the pipeline in respect to seven companies, including the Israeli Military Industry, Singapore Technologies Kinetics and two Indian companies, T.S. Kishan and R.K. Machine Tools, following an FIR by the CBI in the OFB case.
Singapore Technologies Kinetics is among the two companies that were short-listed by the Indian Army to supply 155mm towed guns, but after the decision of the Defence Minister things came to a standstill.
Earlier this year, the Ministry allowed the Army to conduct trials in which the Singapore Technologies Kinetics was also permitted with a caveat that the final decision will be subject to the CBI case. The Ministry had obtained the views of the Central Vigilance Commission before giving the go-ahead for trials.
