Hinduja brothers cleared in Bofors bribery case

The Delhi High Court dismissed charges on Tuesday against the three billionaire Hinduja brothers in an 18-year-old arms kickback case involving Swedish-made Bofors guns.

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The 1986 scandal which embroiled the European-based brothers rocked the then Congress party government and led to the election defeat of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Hinduja brothers - Srichand Hinduja, Gopichand Hinduja and Prakash Hinduja - faced bribery charges in the 1.3 billion dollar Bofors arms sale.

They were cleared due to lack of evidence.

The case centred on accusations that the brothers took substantial bribes from the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors in return for brokering the sale of 400 howitzer field guns to the Indian government in 1986.

The court rejected the charges, saying the Central Bureau of Investigation failed to produce original documents on which it had based its case.

"No case can be proceeded against the Hindujas or Bofors Co in the absence of original documents," Justice R.S. Sodhi ruled. "I cannot foresee any chance of the successful termination of such a useless prosecution."

The brother hailed the ruling in a statement.

"The judgement vindicates us and provides the judicial endorsement of what we have been saying all along: that we were not involved in any wrongdoing," the brothers said, according to the Press Trust of India.

Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja are British citizens and Prakash Hinduja is Swiss. They run a global empire spanning banking and finance, transport, information technology, media, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, oil and chemicals.

The High Court earlier cleared Rajiv Gandhi of wrongdoing in the affair, years after he was slain in 1991, allegedly by Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels. His widow, Sonia Gandhi, now heads India's ruling Congress party which was returned to power last year after a lengthy hiatus.


(AFP)