Even as the CBI filed a closure report in Tatra trucks case stating that charges against the accused were not proved, the agency had earlier come across documents purportedly suggesting that the State-owned BEML, which procured the vehicles for the Army, had partially surrendered its manufacturing rights through a MoU with Tatra Sipox U.K. in 2003.
According to the CBI, the allegation that trucks were supplied by Tatra Sipox U.K. instead of the original manufacturer did not hold as the latter informed the agency that the U.K.-based company was an authorised distributor of its products. On allegations of change of currency in the payment mode, the Bank of Czechoslovakia is learnt to have said that it had asked for the same.
The agency has found no irregularities in the delay in the indigenisation of trucks. Way back in 1986, the State-owned company had entered into an agreement with Tatra of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia for supply of T815 trucks. As agreed, papers on the technological knowhow for manufacturing of the trucks were also bought for Rs. 3 crore.
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