The BJP has demanded a reopening of the criminal investigation into the Bofors kickback case by a Special Investigative Team (SIT) after a ruling by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) that bribes were in fact paid in the Bofors gun deal.
?A strange situation has been created by this order. On the one hand you have CBI which had closed the case and now you have the revenue wing of the same government taking a view that kickbacks were paid,? said Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. ?Basically, the fraud perpetrated by the CBI at the behest of its political masters, the Congress, stands exposed,? he added. ?This is the discovery of truth by default, it reveals that truth is tenacious and the more we suppress it, the more it comes out,? he said.
?Ironically, this is a timely reminder that the country doesn’t need five points to fight corruption, only one, that is to star sending the corrupt to jail and don’t cover up,? he added. ?The solution to all this is the reopening of the criminal case in the Bofors matter and an investigation done by an SIT since the CBI has utterly failed in this regard,? he said.
The Congress appeared a little taken aback by the findings of the ITAT on a matter which the party had considered dead and buried. Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the party had not had an opportunity to look at the 140 page order and would react only after that. ?Let us have a look at the order first,? he said.
Sources in the BJP said that they were pleasantly surprised at the turn of events. ?This was perhaps an unintended consequence of a routine tax case,? said a senior leader. ?On its own, the ITAT findings would not have had a deep impact but coming as it does in the season of scam it will have a cummulative effect,? he added.