An Indian court has dismissed an appeal by three London-based Indian businessmen, the Hinduja brothers, to be allowed to leave the country.

The three billionaire brothers, Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, are facing trial for their involvement in alleged kickbacks in a multi-million dollar defence deal 15 years ago.

They have been accused of accepting $7m from the Swedish firm Bofors to help facilitate the sale of 400 field guns to the Indian army.

Now the Hinduja brothers have again been refused permission to leave India before their trial in the Bofors gun deal starts.

The brothers were granted bail earlier this year but a special court, set up to hear the case, told them recently they could not leave the country until the trial was over.

They appealed against this order to the high court in Delhi.

Separate trial

The judge has turned down that request on the grounds that there was sufficient reason to believe the brothers may not return when the hearings began.

But he made one concession.

He asked the special court to hold a separate trial for them since no one knows when the other two individuals accused, the Swedish head of Bofors and an Italian businessmen, were going to be extradited to stand trial.

So far all efforts to bring them to Delhi have failed.

The brothers say the money they received from Bofors had nothing to do with the gun deal.

Although the Bofors scandal broke out 15 years ago, it continues to loom over Indian politics.