New Delhi: The clock has started ticking for suspended BEML chief VRS Natarajan after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has got the sanction to prosecute him. The agency believes Natarajan took favours from Vectra chief Ravi Rishi and is ready to file a chargesheet against him.

The CBI is ready to confront Natarajan with evidence showing that he got favours from Rishi during his tenure.

Natarajan had argued that after the split of Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovak Republic it was Rishi's Tatra Sipox UK which became the original manufacturer for the Tatra trucks. But the CBI claims it has proof that the Czech-based firm Tatra continued to be the original manufacturer and in fact supplied 1500 trucks to UAE in the same period.

In 1996, UAE procured the advanced T816 Tatra trucks from the original manufacturer Tatra AS but even a year later BEML was still procuring the old version T 815. The CBI suspects that the truck was renamed as T815-6 to mislead the Army that a higher version had been supplied.

Not just UAE, India's very own DRDO has also procured one tranche of trucks in 2004-2005 directly from the original manufacturer Tatra AS for its anti-tank pinaca missiles.

The last time when the CBI questioned Natarajan, he defended all his actions. But now the CBI is confident that it has the evidence to show that the original manufacturer was very much in business and Rishi's Tatra Sipox UK just acted as a middleman. Armed with all the evidence, the CBI believes it is on the right track to chargesheet the former BEML chief or even arrest him.