New Delhi, Oct 22: A Delhi court has fixed the dates for examining by video-conferencing several foreign nationals as prosecution witnesses in the Rs 133-crore urea scam case.
Perusing an application moved by CBI, Additional Sessions Judge A K Garg fixed November 05, 06, 07 and 10 as the dates for the video-conferencing as per the convenience of the foreign witnesses who are to be examined.
The witnesses who will be examined on those dates are R Sloss, Nick James Durwar Ankhurst (of Barclays Bank in London), Ian Bancroft qnd Kingsmoth who all would face questions related to the transaction which took place between the Turkish firm Karsan and Brazilian national Pinto.
The video-conferencing will take place at VSNL's Bangla Sahib Road office in the heart of the capital and at the Indian embassy in England.
In a petition moved before the court, CBI counsel V N Ojha submitted that many witnesses from foreign countries including United Kingdom, Turkey, Switzerland and Isle of Man were not willing to come to India, but had expressed their desire to testify through video-conferencing.
The counsel informed that there were altogether 32 foreign witnesses who were likely to be examined by CBI.
This would be the first case in which so many witnesses would be examined by the court through video-conferencing.
According to CBI, Turkish firm Karsan had taken USD 38 million in advance from National Fertiliser Limited for supply of 2,00,000 mt of urea. But not even a single grain of urea reached the country.
Bureau Report