The sensational revelation that hundreds of crores was paid by Russian and British arms firms to companies controlled by alleged arms dealer Sudhir Choudhrie’s family may not result in any breakthrough against corruption in defence deals in India, say defence establishment sources.
For any breakthrough, especially in deals involving Russian firms, unwavering political will is necessary, at least two senior sources familiar with the entire sector said.
On Tuesday, quoting the BBC and The Guardian , The Hindu reported that secret banking documents showed remittance of almost €100 million (about Rs. 730 crore) in just 12 months by Russian arms firms into accounts of companies controlled by Choudhrie, his family and close associates. In a separate revelation, the investigations revealed that at least £10 million was paid by the British company Rolls-Royce to firms linked to the Choudhries.
British probe“The Rolls-Royce investigation could potentially make some breakthrough because of British investigations. However, the Russians would be a tough nut to crack,” a senior civil servant who spent several years in the Defence Ministry told The Hindu .
According to secret banking documents, one company owned by the Choudhrie family, Belinea Services Ltd., received €39.2 million between October 2007 and October 2008 from Russian firms. Another company, Cottage Consultants Ltd., was paid €32.8 million in the same period, while a third company, Carter Consultants Inc, was paid €23 million by the Russians.
The leaked documents say one of the Russian arms firms paying the Choudhries “makes cruise missiles”, the report said.
Some of the payments were viewed as suspicious at the time by the Swiss bank, Clariden Leu. Its compliance office in Singapore raised anti-money laundering alerts and the Choudhrie family accounts were reviewed by the bank’s risk management team.
“Russians are not going to give anything away, unless strong political pressure is applied,” the official said. “We will have to see how much the government will go forward with it.”
Not just because of the Russian angle, the fear of no breakthrough in investigations is also linked to the failure of Indian investigation agencies over the years to nail corruption in defence deals conclusively.
Through the past several decades, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have investigated allegations of corruption in many defence deals. However, not one of them has resulted in successful conviction of all the accused.
In many of those cases, they were closed by the agency saying lack of evidence.
2007 caseIn 2007 the CBI had claimed corruption in the upgrade of artillery guns, and named Sudhir Choudhrie and others. In 2010, the agency told a Delhi court that it had no evidence to prosecute Mr. Choudhrie, and whatever money his company received from the Israeli company Soltam was for “stainless steel kitchen utensils”.
The agency has also filed cases in the past against Abshishek Verma and his wife, Anca Neacsu.
However, the charge sheet is yet to be filed.
Similarly, in the ongoing investigations into the allegations of bribery in the purchase of VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland by the Indian Air Force too, there is no major breakthrough on the Indian side. Most of the information that is known has all emerged in Italian investigations.
