A senior Central government official and his aides were bribed $32,000 in cash and jewellery while their travel and hotel expenses were also picked up by a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, which took over the Union Carbide company after the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, to push its substandard pesticides in the Indian market, a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says.
The details of the bribes paid by Dow Agro Sciences India Ltd. Mumbai, which was earlier known as DE-Nocil, have been mentioned in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case, a senior official said.
The chargesheet was filed on the basis of information furnished by the US authorities to the Indian government in response to a letter rogatory, a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.
“The legal action comes after the letter rogatory was executed by the US government on Nov 17, 2008 to elicit information regarding vouchers of Dow Chemicals to establish payment of bribes during 1996-2001 by Dow Agro Sciences,” CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said. —IANS