After Bofors, India is set to lose urea scam money

After Bofors, India is set to lose urea scam money

NEW DELHI: After losing Bofors kickback money in the UK, the CBI now looks set to lose the Rs 133 crore spirited away by the urea scam accused. Thanks to an ingenious ploy by the accused, who listed a dead man as a defence witness causing inordinate delay in completing the trial, a Swiss court has ordered unfreezing of the account holding the money since 1996. The urea scam, perhaps the most sensational of many which tainted the legacy of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, involved the payment of Rs 133 crore to a Turkish firm, Karsan Ltd, even when it did not deliver a single bag of the fertiliser it was contracted to supply. The accused, who exploited the greed of public officials to pull off the daring swindle, have now taken recourse to a shrewd strategem to access the money. V M Setrovich, cited as one of the defence witnesses for the foreign accused — Turkish nationals Cihan Karanci and Tunkay Alankus and Brazilian Agnaldo Pinto — passed away in 1998. The fact of his death was, however, kept under wraps, with the accused even organising a fax to be sent from Russia to the trial court in India on his behalf. In the letter purportedly from Setrovich , the witness expressed his willingness to come from Russia and take the stand. While the deception was eventually found out, the ploy delayed the trial — and it was invoked by the accused to seek unfreezing of the account