The CBI, which is investigating the Ordnance Factory Board scam, will soon be sending a formal request to Singapore to obtain details of bank accounts of Sudipta Ghosh, former director of the OFB and main accused in the multi-crore scam.

Highly places sources told The Indian Express that Ghosh had allegedly taken a bribe of approximately one lakh US dollar (around Rs 50,000 lakh) in just his last days before retirement from the Board on May 1 this year. The sources said he had allegedly stacked the money in his Singapore bank account of RBS Coutts Bank Ltd with the help of Ramesh Nambiar (a former Air India general manager), another accused in the scam.

“We are in the process of sending LR (Letter Rogatory, a formal letter seeking assistance) request to Singapore. We are looking upon transactions in other countries as well but till now, we have found evidence about his ill-gotten money stacked in Singapore,” said a senior CBI official.

According to CBI documents, available with The Indian Express, Ghosh used to allegedly take at least Rs 1 lakh 'token amount' from private suppliers to just meet them. The documents give details of Ghosh's meetings with suppliers, his bank accounts and alleged Hawala transactions. The CBI documents say he had reportedly collected bribe from various private suppliers in Delhi ranging between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

Ghosh allegedly operated through his relative Ashish Bose. The CBI registered a case on May 17 against Ghosh, a private supplier Pradeep Rana and agents Kanai Lal Das, Ashish Bose and Ramesh Nambiar. The accused got bail in July. withregard to the chargesheet, a senior CBI officer said, “Not now. It will take time (to file it). We have to carry lot of investigation yet.”