No response from South Africa on CBI's request on Denel

NEW DELHI: The CBI's attempts to get information from South Africa in a seven-year old case of alleged corruption in Anti-Materiel Rifles supply deal from Denel have not yielded any result despite assurance from their authorities to provide the details as soon as possible.

In October, a team led by the then CBI Director A P Singh, had met top South African officials including the Defence Minster, and apprised them about the seven-year-old case in which the agency is seeking information through Letters Rogatory from South Africa, sources said.

Official sources had said the authorities had responded positively to the presentation given by the CBI team which visited the country recently.

The authorities there had told the team that they could not respond to LRs sent by the agency because some employees of Denel had filed injunction with the courts there expressing their reluctance to be questioned by the CBI officials, they had said.

During the visit, the authorities there had assured that they would be intimated within a week the legal position in this regard and possible time limit in which the replies might be furnished, they said.

Sources said despite these assurances they have not received any information about developments on their Letters Rogatory sent in this regard.

The sources said agency wants to know the details of Indian contacts which had allegedly helped the South African firm to bag the contract.

In 2005, the CBI had booked unnamed officials of state-owned South African arms manufacturer Denel, its British agent and officials of Indian Defence Ministry to probe alleged corruption in arms purchase, they said.