NEW DELHI: Sixteen years after irregularities were alleged in procurement of material, munitions and missiles during the Kargil war which sparked a major political controversy, denting the image of the then NDA government , the Supreme Court on Monday closed the matter after no one was found guilty.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and V Gopala Gowda accepted the CBI’s report which said it had not found anyone guilty of indulging in irregularity or corruption in the alleged scam despite a PIL claiming that the scam was worth Rs 24,000 crore.

The apex court, which has been monitoring the case since 2004, closed the matter and disposed of the PIL after the Centre and the CBI said all the accused were discharged by the trial court and nothing survived in the case.

Advocate R Bala Subramaniam, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that corruption allegations were leveled in procurement of aluminum caskets, Karasnopol ammunition and snow suits but the CBI did not find any irregularities and the trial court had also accepted the closure reports. He said the trial court recently discharged a US citizen and the sole accused Victor Baiza in the caskets import case.

Investigations in the case were extended to Germany, Mauritius, the UK, Israel and the UAE, for which letters rogatory were issued. Following investigations, CBI did not find any irregularities and filed a closure report which was accepted by the trial court.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the aluminium casket purchase case before the trial court on August 13, 2009. The trial court had on December 2013 discharged all Army officials and Baiza was finally discharged in September this year.

Relating to purchase of 1,000 terminally guided munitions (Karasnopol) despite it failing five out of six tests, the CBI told the bench that a closure report was submitted to the trial court which closed the case.

In the Denel case relating to purchase of anti-material rifles from South Africa, the CBI had sent letters rogatory to South Africa, the UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong and British Virgin Island, but the agency finally filed a closure report which was accepted by the trial court on April 30 last year.

The CBI, which was asked to probe the case in June 2005, had initially registered 25 cases but the agency could not find sufficient evidence to proceed against anyone after a decade of investigations.