CBI files case against Delhi-based firm for using fake Chinese parts to manufacture Bofors guns
Officials of a factory that made the first batch of the Dhanush guns have also been booked for accepting the spare parts labelled ‘Made in Germany’.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed a case against a Delhi-based company for trying to pass off cheap China-manufactured parts as “Made in Germany” in the production of Bofors artillery guns called Dhanush.
Sidh Sales Syndicate and unidentified public servants from the Gun Carriage Factory in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur town, which built the first batch of the weapons, have been booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption, The Telegraph reported.
The Indian Army plans to acquire 414 Dhanush guns. But the CBI’s case suggests that the Jabalpur factory had accepted Chinese-made parts called Wire Race Roller Bearings. They were labelled “Made in Germany”.
The factory claimed it had acquired the spare parts from a German firm, CRB Antriebstechnik, and even produced certificates from this company. However, the CBI investigation found that the documents were forged, and that CRB Antriebstechnik had not even manufactured the spare parts.
The agency has also found emails between the Delhi-based company and the Chinese firm that sold the fake parts. The Gun Carriage Factory ordered the parts 2013 onward.