Swiss give leads in Denel payoffs case

A CBI team visited Berne in connection with the Denel investigations earlier this month and documents examined by the sleuths are expected to be delivered to India through diplomatic channels after obtaining a court order. Sources said the CBI team was given access to around 15,000 documents recovered from the office of one of the directors of Varas Associates,Marc Craig Veitch,and around 160 of these were flagged as being relevant to the Indian probe. It is in these documents that the names of two other Indians were traced.

Officials said Swiss authorities — at India’s request — searched the Berne office of Veitch since Varas Associates was named as the company alleged to have received commissions to the tune of 12.75% or Rs 20 crore for securing an order of 400 Anti Material Rifles (AMRs).

The contracts with Denel were signed between 1999-2002.

The CBI has earlier linked arms dealer Vipin Khanna to the Denel case and cited the AMR contract during arguments in the Supreme Court in connection with confiscation of his passport.

Allegations of a pay-off in the AMR contract first appeared in the South African press. After an uproar in Parliament,the CBI registered an FIR against “unknown” public servants of the Ministry of Defence; Denel and Varas Associates. Denel was subsequently blacklisted for entering into any negotiations with the Ministry of Defence for arms contracts.

The FIR listed a series of payments allegedly received by Varas Associates,located in the Isle of Man,between 2002-2003. Some of the invoices for the payments were allegedly sent from the Isle of Man to Denel headquarters by Veitch. The payments were listed by him as receipts for “technical” and “consultancy” services rendered for the Indian arms deal. The FIR also mentions that Varas Associates “traded on its influence with the Indian PNC (Price Negotiation Committee).”