Even as fresh and sensational details have emerged of massive manipulations of Indian arms purchases by arms dealer Sudhir Choudhrie, the Enforcement Directorate has revived an old case, filed almost 16 years ago by the CBI, against the London-based arms dealer.
The ED has now issued notices to firms linked to Mr Choudhrie for alleged corruption and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.
Documents soughtThe agency has sought documents and financial statements of some Indian firms linked to the Choudhrie family as part of the FEMA investigation it began at least five years ago.
In 2011, aDelhi court asked the ED to probe the foreign remittances recorded in firms controlled by Choudhrie and his associates. The order came after the CBI filed a closure report saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
However, over the last five years the ED has not made any major breakthrough, in line with the history of investigations into arms deals by various Indian agencies. In its FIR filed in 2004, the CBI claimed that Magnum International Trading Co Ltd of Choudhrie received kickbacks in the contract for upgrading of 130 mm field guns to 155 mm for the army. The import was made from Israeli firm Soltam. The CBI had detected a remittance of about Rs. 68 lakh to a firm controlled by Mr. Choudhrie.
The ED’s move coincides with reports in the international and Indian media, including The Hindu , about hundreds of crores that Rolls Royce and Russian arms firms paid to the Choudhrie family controlled firms around the world.
Among the new details are remittances of almost €100 million (approx Rs. 730 crore) in just 12 months by Russian arms firms into Choudhrie-controlled firms in 2007-08 period. There is also evidence of payment of £10 million by British company Rolls-Royce to firms linked to Mr. Choudhrie.
