CBI scans Tatra Sipox balance sheets

Apr 30, 2012 - PRAMOD KUMAR |

New Delhi

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The CBI, probing alleged irregularities in procurement of around 6,000 Tatra trucks by the Indian army, has now started scrutinising annual reports and balance sheets submitted by Tatra Sipox (UK), the company which is under the scanner of the agency, with British authorities since 1998.

Sources in the agency said, “The agency is also analysing balance sheet of the company (registered no 02941942) submitted with authorities concerned in the UK on October 31, 2010. According to the balance sheet the total net assets (liabilities) of the Tatra Sipox (UK) was £2,58,609.” The agency officials are analysing other details of the company also, sources said.

“If required, the CBI officials may call certain members of the board of directors of the company also for questioning. The agency has already questioned Ravi Rishi, who bought majority stakes in Tatra Sipox (UK), in this regard,” sources said.

The agency may question another top official (company secretary) of Tatra Sipox (UK), sources added. The agency is also planning to send letters of request to authorities concerned in the UK to get details about other stake-holders of the company, they said.

Probe by the CBI has revealed that the agreement signed earlier with a Foreign Trade Corporation of Czechoslovakia by the state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited for military vehicles was fraudulently assigned to Tatra UK in 1997.

“This was against the provisions of Defence Procurement procedure for supplying the vehicles to Indian Army on the basis of the orders placed by the Defence ministry”, sources said. The agency is also examining annual reports and balance sheets of the Tatra Sipox (UK) which were submitted to British authorities before 1998, sources added.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has started probing the Tatra trucks deal after registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Rishi, his firms and unknown officials of the BEML, will soon question Rishi in this regard.

The ED has also asked Rishi to produce documents related the Tatra Sipox UK Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the BEML which was inked in 1997 including the details of their financial statements, annual reports and tax returns, sources added.

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