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Hindujas arrive in India: PTI

Two of the three - London-based G P Hinduja and Geneva-based P P Hinduja, arrived in Bombay and group chairman S P Hinduja arrived in Delhi from London.

Their counsel Ujjawal Rana said they will appear before Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke on Friday.

Rana said they have come despite not receiving summons issued by the court, after taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed against them.

"They will appear before the court on Friday. They firmly believe that allegations against them in the Bofors case were false and motivated," the lawyer said.

He said the Hindujas were not persons who would run away from the judicial persons and were of the view that the law would take its course.

Rana said they would they appear before the court of Ajit Bharihoke whenever the matter is taken up.

The decks were cleared on January 10 for the appearance of the Hinduja brothers before the court in the Bofors payoffs case when the CBI said it had asked the immigration authorities not to detain or arrest them on their arrival in India.

Replying to applications filed by the Hindujas seeking cancellation of the lookout notices issued by CBI in 1993, the agency had said, "The immigration authorities have been instructed not to detain/arrest them on their arrival, so that they could appear before the court in obedience to the summons issued."

The court had issued summons to the Hindujas, asking them to appear before it on January 19 after taking cognisance of the CBI chargesheet, which alleged that they had received 81 million Swedish Kroners from A B Bofors, which bagged the gun contract in 1986.

The Hindujas had sought cancellation of the lookout notices, terming them "motivated and intended to harass and humiliate them".

They had also sought permission to appear before the court on separate dates as their business, spread over four continents and employing over 25,000 people, may suffer if all were held up in court on a single date.

The Hindujas, while expressing willingness to appear before the court in pursuance of the summons, had sought exemption from personal appearance in future.

The chargesheet against the Hinduja brothers came almost a year after the first one filed by the CBI on October 22, 1999, naming Kuala Lumpur-based Italian businessman Quattrocchi, non-resident Indian businessman Win Chadha, former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, then Bofors company chief Martin Ardbo and the company as accused.

The complete coverage: Bofors - The smoking gun

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