India may seek consular access to held official

New Delhi, Nov 3: India may seek consular access to the two Indian nationals, including a UN official, who were arrested in US yesterday on graft charges.

''...whatever facilities accrue to any Indian national, will be accrued to them...whatever facilities will have to be given, will be accrued,'' an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said today.

''I am pointing towards the possibility if there is an arrest, if consular access is sought etc. whatever facilities available to any Indian national under the circumstances, will be awarded,'' the spokesman said in reply to a question.

The spokessman said the arrested officiasl is not an employee of the Government of India.

An Indian national, working with the UN as a procurement official, was arrested yesterday in New York on charges of steering more than 50 million dollars in contracts to Indian companies in exchange for acquiring an apartment.

The official, Sanjay Bahel, was suspended by the United Nations on August 31 during investigations.

Another Indian national, a businessman, Nishan Kohli, who was an agent for the Public Sector Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL) was arrested in Miami.

A Reuters report from New York said Sanjay Bahel had allegedly, over the past more than six years, granted exceptional access to Kohli with information on bidding. He had even cancelled bids by competing companies to give Kohli's business interests a competitive advantage.

Consequently, Kohli allegedly secured a number of contracts for TCIL, including radio communications and computer equipment as well as information technology.

In return, Kohli purchased an apartment at the Dag Hammarskjold Towers in Manhattan and provided it to Bahel and his family for two years at greatly reduced rent or no rent at all.

In May 2005, Kohli sold the apartment to Bahel at substantially below market value, drawing a protest from the building's condominium board, Reuters said.

Both men, charged with bribery, could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.

Bahel, formerly of the Indian government's military auditing service, first came under scrutiny in September 2004 when a UN internal audit investigated contracts he handled.

In September, when the news first broke, Bahel denied all the allegations. An official of India's mission to the United Nations told Reuters at the time that once the investigation was complete, his government would cooperate with the United Nations and its findings.

UNI