Billionaire brothers cleared of charges
A New Delhi High Court has cleared London-based billionaire brothers, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, of accepting kickbacks in an arms scandal.
Srichand Hinduja, the patriarch of the family, and his brothers, Gopichand and Prakash, were accused of receiving payments totalling $8.3m in illegal commissions to help to secure an Indian Government contract for AB Bofors, a Swedish gunmaker, reports The Guardian. Srichand and Gopichand are British citizens, while Prakash holds a Swiss passport. The court also dismissed charges against the Swedish arms manufacturer of paying bribes on the $1.3bn sale of 400 howitzers to India in 1986. In its strongly worded ruling, the Bench criticised India\'s top criminal investigation agency for failing to produce any credible evidence to substantiate its original claims. Full report in The Guardian