A special Indian sessions court yesterday refused to allow three brothers of the billionaire Hinduja family, who face charges over the Bofors arms scandal, to leave India. Brothers Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand P. Hinduja, accused of receiving 81 million Swedish Kroner in the Rs14.37 billion controversial Bofors gun deal, had applied for the court's permission to travel abroad soon after they were granted conditional bail by the same court on January 19.

Giving his ruling yesterday, Additional District and Session Judge Ajit Bharihoke said that he had dismissed the joint application of the accused. Bharihoke upheld apprehensions expressed by the investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that if allowed to go abroad, the Hindujas may not return to India to face trial in the case. Bharihoke had reserved his ruling after hearing arguments of all parties on Hindujas' application on Tuesday.

The Hindujas probably had an inkling of what awaited them as they were not present in the courtroom when Bharihoke gave his ruling. Lawyer Ujjwal Rana, appearing on behalf on Hindujas, later expressed his dismay at the ruling, hinting the Hindujas' would challenge the ruling in the Delhi High Court. The CBI, in its rejoinder to the application, wanted the three brothers to surrender their passports as at the conclusion of their interrogation, lasting for 10 days, they informed court that Hindujas were evasive in their replies.

Legal circles here feel that unless the High Court overrules the lower court order, which it has not done so far in the Bofors case, the high flying Hindujas could be grounded in India for a long time. Legal circles feel that the decision of Hindujas to fight a court case in Switzerland to prevent India getting all relevant documents, and their decision to give up their Indian citizenship after losing the court battle in Switzerland were enough reasons for the Special Court to agree with CBI apprehensions.

While the elder of the two brothers Srichand and Gopichand acquired British citizenship under controversial circumstances, Prakashchand is now a Swiss citizen. Although the Hindujas have some business interests in India, which is mainly looked after by the youngest of the four Hinduja brothers Ashokchand P. Hinduja, who is not an accused and continues to retain his Indian citizenship, the other Hindujas ever since their return to India on January 18 following the court summons, had been maintaining that their business empire would suffer immensely if they were denied permission to go abroad.

Interestingly, soon after giving up their Indian citizenship, the three brothers had acquired PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) cards, enabling them to enter India without visas and stay in the country indefinitely. As two of the accused in the Bofors case, the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and the former Bofors president Martin Ardbo are still at large, the actual hearing in the case may not start in the near future.