Bofors scam: Delhi High Court dismisses Madhav Singh Solanki plea against FIR

The Delhi High Court today dismissed former Foreign Minister Madhav Singh Solanki's plea for quashing an FIR lodged against him as an offshoot of the infamous Bofors scam, saying what he did was a "grave matter". The FIR was lodged against Solanki, also a former Chief Minister of Gujarat, for fabricating false evidence as he had handed over, in 1992, a memorandum to a minister in the Swiss government regarding status of proceedings in the Bofors case and the Letters Rogatory issued by a special court here to Switzerland seeking its assistance in getting documents from there.

While dismissing 87-year-old Solanki's plea, Justice Muralidhar said, "It prima facie appears that the intention behind handing over that memorandum was to dissuade Swiss authorities from further processing the Letters Rogatory (LR). It appears that the said outcome was a distinct possibility had the government of India not immediately advised the Swiss authorities not to take any serious action on the memorandum. "Prima facie the attempt by the appellant, as a Union Cabinet Minister of the government of India in handing over the memorandum intending to stall the processing of the LR forwarded to the Swiss authorities was a grave matter." Solanki had initially challenged the FIR as well as the sanction granted for the same by the government in the high court which had remanded the matter back in the trial court dealing with the scam which in turn had dismissed it.
Thereafter, he had filed the present appeal in the high court against the trial court's decision.

The high court in its 30-page judgement rejecting Solanki's appeal also said that "Circumstance brought into existence was the handing over of the memorandum by the appellant, as a Cabinet Minister of the government of India, to the minister in the government of Switzerland with a view to stopping the government of Switzerland from further proceeding with the request made by way of the LR." 

The court also observed in its judgement that "the offence under section 192 (fabricating false evidence) IPC stood attracted when with an intention to bring about the result of causing the government of Switzerland to form an erroneous opinion regarding the request made by the LR, the memorandum was handed over to the then Swiss Foreign Minister Rene Felber.

"The sanction order thus viewed cannot be said to be error in opining that the appellant fabricated a false document." It also said that "there was sufficient material before the sanctioning authority for forming a prima facie opinion as to the need for grant of sanction".

The memorandum was handed over to the Swiss minister by Solanki on February 1, 1992 at Davos in Switzerland. CBI had on April 4, 2003 registered an FIR against Solanki in connection with the note while accusing him of producing false evidence under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The case was registered after obtaining a legal opinion of the then Attorney General in 1998.

Solanki had sought quashing of the FIR on the ground that the note was not prepared by him but by a lawyer and he was merely a courier. He also took the defence that "incident was of 1992 and since little progress has been made in the past 22 years, no useful purpose would be served in continuing these vexatious proceedings, in the interests of justice".

The court, however, rejected the contentions saying "Prima facie, it appears that the appellant (Solanki) was not merely a courier of the Memorandum. He was aware of what it contained and what was intended to be achieved by it being handing over."

On the aspect of the 22-year-long litigation, the court said that since he himself initiated several rounds of litigation, he cannot be permitted to plead delay as a legitimate reason for the further proceedings against him to be dropped.