NEW DELHI, January 25, 2001
CNN
NRI, Three billionaire Hinduja brothers have joined
Hindu pilgrims for a sin-cleansing dip in the river
Ganges as their troubles in India and Britain escalate.
The brothers, from Britain's richest Asian family,
have been charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) and one was also behind the resignation of a
senior British minister on Wednesday.
The Indian Express newspaper said the business tycoons'
visit to the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in the northern
city of Allahabad was "so hush-hush that senior
police officers and mela organisers were not aware
of it."
The three men had planned to stay Tuesday night at
the city, where some 30 million people took a dip
at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical
Saraswati rivers the next day.
Instead, they rushed back to New Delhi for another
round of questioning by police.
Gandhi's downfall
Srichand, Prakash and Gopichand Hinduja have been
charged with receiving illegal commissions from Sweden's
Bofors for the $1.2-billion sale of howitzer guns
in 1986.
The deal is alleged to have contributed to the downfall
of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government
in 1989.
CBI investigators completed questioning Srichand
Hinduja and a special court assigned to try CBI cases
gave the investigation agency until January 30 to
finish interrogating Geneva-based Prakash and London-based
Hinduja.
The brothers, whose business interests span media,
banking oil and chemicals, deny any wrongdoing.
Top British minister
resigns
Srichand found himself at the centre of a political
scandal this week after Britain's Northern Ireland
Secretary resigned over his application for a British
passport, which was accepted in 1999 after a previous
refusal.
In 1998, Hinduja met Mandelson at a party and asked
about citizenship. He later made a donation of $1.4
million (one million pounds) to the Millennium Dome,
the London attraction Mandelson was responsible for
Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja first applied for
British passports in 1990 but were turned down a year
later.
However, Gopichand Hinduja reapplied for and was
granted a passport in 1997, by which time the brothers
had approached the Millennium Commission about a centre
promoting inter-faith understanding.
The Indian Express said that the Hinduja brothers
were followers of a Hindu religious leader Swami Chidanand
Saraswati and had donated money to his ashram.
