Friday, July 1 2005 10:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The CBI would soon be sending Letters Rogatory to South Africa and the United Kingdom to get information about alleged payment of money to a British firm by South African armament manufacturer Denel to clinch a deal to supply rifles to Indian Army.

"We are preparing the Letters Rogatory and we will send them to these countries for further information," CBI Director U S Misra told reporters.

Denel is accused of having paid money to British firm Versa Associates, based in the Isle of Man, to secure the deal in 2003.

Referring to other defence deals referred to CBI by the Government, the CBI Director said the agency had received 10 cases from the Defence Ministry for registering a case. "However, we had referred back to them for want of more information. The Defence Ministry has sent it with some footnotes of the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and we have sent it back," Misra said.

CAG has pointed out several things but the CBI requires a criminal complaint before a case was to be made out, he said, adding, discussions were on between CBI and Defence Ministry officials.

The Defence Ministry has recently sent details about arms purchase during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime including the casket purchase during Kargil conflict to the CBI.

Among the cases referred to the CBI were Automatic Grenade Launchers (Rs 52.13 crore), Bullet Proof Jackets (Rs 51.65 crore), Multi-purpose Boots (Rs 30.37 crore), Charging/Generating sets (Rs 28.15 crore), Sleeping bags (Rs 20.69 crore), Surveillance Radar (Rs 9.86 crore) and Sniper Rifles (Rs 9.54 crore).