By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Monday did not react to an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal’s order relating to the Bofors gun deal kickbacks case, saying that it will respond after looking into its context and details.
“We will have to see the order, the context and the details. The Congress party will certainly react but we are not going to be hurried into reacting since some news report has been carried and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has reacted,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.
He said the party will deal with the issue after looking into the tribunal’s order.
Asked about the BJP’s demand for re-opening the criminal probe through a special investigation team (SIT) into the Bofors pay-off case, Singhvi said the party will respond to such issues after looking at the order.
The tribunal ruled in December 2010 that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and his partner Win Chadha received a commission of over Rs.412 million in the supply of 155mm howitzer guns to India in 1987.
The BJP said Monday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had “perpetuated a fraud” in the Bofors case “at the behest of its political masters in the Congress” by closing the case and taking a position that no bribes had been paid.
The BJP has demanded that the “fraud” and “cover up” be probed by a special investigation team.