Tatra case: Delhi court to consider CBI's closure report on October 7

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday fixed October 7 for considering the closure report filed by CBI in the case relating to alleged irregularities in supply of all-terrain Tatra vehicles to the Indian Army. Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain posted the matter for October 7 after the agency sought some time to file documents relating to the case before the court.

CBI had filed the closure report in the case in which it had registered an FIR on March 30, 2012 against Ravinder Kumar Rishi, promoter of Tatra Sipox UK Ltd, and others, including unnamed officials of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), a defence PSU. In its 30-page closure report, the agency has claimed that allegations levelled against the accused in its FIR could not be substantiated during the subsequent investigation.

Rishi, a British national, unnamed officials of Defence Ministry and others were facing a CBI probe for alleged irregularities in supply of Tatra vehicles to BEML by

Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd. CBI had earlier alleged Tatra vehicles were procured from Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd despite the fact that a licence agreement regarding this was with M/s Omnipol, a Czech firm.

CBI had claimed that vehicles worth Rs 5,000 crore (approx) were supplied to the Army causing undue benefit to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd and corresponding loss to Defence Ministry. The agency had registered the case for alleged irregularities in assigning supply from Czechoslovakia-based Tatra, with which an agreement was signed in 1986, to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd in 1997 showing it as the original equipment manufacturer and fully-owned subsidiary of the Czech company, which was allegedly against rules.

However, in its closure report, CBI has said that its probe does not point to the guilt of any accused in the case. "During the course of investigation, LR (letter rogatory) was sent to the Czech Republic and the same has been received after execution. The LR execution reports do not point towards guilt of any accused person in this case in respect of the issues dealt in the preceding paras (of the report).

"In view of the above, the court is requested to accept the closure report in this case and pass orders to return the documents seized during investigation from different quarters," CBI said. Giving details of the case, the agency said earlier Tatra vehicles were being procured from Czechoslovakia and were used by the Army for pulling of heavy guns, tanks and others in frontier areas.

On the alleged issue of wrongful loss caused to BEML and corresponding gain to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd, CBI in its closure report said this could not be substantiated during its probe. Rishi had been quizzed several times by CBI in connection with the case as he has a substantial stake in Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd.

CBI has lodged a case naming Rishi and unnamed officials of Defence Ministry and BEML for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating under the IPC and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.