New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on January 14 allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file closure report in the HDW pay off scam after it failed to get any co-operation from German and Swiss authorities in probing the 13-year-old case of alleged seven per cent commission to middlemen in the Rs 420 crore submarine deal.

A Bench comprising justice Usha Mehra and justice Pradeep Nandrajog allowed the CBI to file the closure report before March 24 in the special court in New Delhi, which had issued letters rogatory (LR) for investigation of the payment to middlemen by Germany's HDW company to clinch the deal for supplying two advance class submarines to India in mid-80s.

The court issued the order after examining the status report filed by the agency.

It also directed the CBI to give copies of the Karnataka police's probe report into the alleged payment of commission by another German company AEG, to the state's public sector unit (PSU) New Government Electrical Factory (NGEF) in the supply of torpedos for the submarines, to two petitioners who brought the matters before the court.

After examining the agency's status report, the court said, "The CBI has acted without dividend in the case. They have stated that in response to LR, the Swiss and German authorities have stated that the case cannot be investigated in their countries as records with the banks for more than 10 years are not available."

CBI had named several high officials, including some from Defence Ministry, Navy, some private individuals and some Indian and foreign companies as accused in the case in a first information report (FIR) registered in 1990.

PTI