Quattrocchi taken off from wanted list of Interpol

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) Italian businessman Ottavio
Quattrocchi, the only surviving suspect in the Bofors payoff
case, has been dropped from the Interpol's wanted list at the
behest of India's premier investigating agency Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI), kicking a political storm with
opposition parties Tuesday accusing the government of giving
him a clean chit three weeks before it bows out of office.

As the Government tried to put up a brave front, Prime
Ministerial candidate of main opposition BJP, L K Advani held
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President "guilty"
for the CBI decision and said the party will reopen all
political cases if it comes to power.

Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said the Centre has no role in
CBI asking Interpol to drop Quattrocchi's name from the wanted
list. The agency took the decision on the basis of the opinion
given by Attorney General Milon Banerjee given in October last
year.

Under fire, the CBI came out with a brief statement. Its
spokesman Harsh Bahal said, "the case has been under trial in
the courts since 1999. CBI has taken action on the basis of
legal advice of the highest order. We will inform the
competent court on the next date of hearing (April 30, 2009).

The CBI had sent the case to Banerjee for seeking his
legal opinion in the matter as the five-year validity of Red
Corner Notice against 71-year-old Quattrocchi, issued at the
behest of CBI.

The Attorney General cited CBI's inability to seek
Quattrocchi's extradition on two occasions --first in Malaysia
in 2003 and then in Argentina in 2007--and opined that the
judgements in both the cases indicated that there were no good
grounds for extradition.

"...the warrant cannot remain in force forever.
Therefore, the warrant of February 1997 lost its validity,
particularly in view of successive failed attempts of the CBI
to get the accused extradited from Malaysia and recently from
Argentina," Banerjee, the country's top law officer, said.

The Attorney General also cited the May 2005 judgement
of Delhi High Court of Justice R S Sodhi who quashed the
charges against Hinduja brothers and Bofors Company.

The High Court order came after Additional Solictor
General B Dutta had conceded that the CBI could not get
authenticated or original Swiss documents for proceeding with
the case.

Advani said "this is a very serious issue. It is not a
question of Quattrocchi alone but the entire role of the
agency during the last five years which should be probed."

Describing BJP's allegation as politically motivated,
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said Bofors is a "dead
horse" which the opposition party has been trying to flog for
several elections.

Amidst the opposition clamour, former CBI director
Joginder Singh claimed that the agency had documents which
showed that Quattrocchi had allegedly received 7.32 million
USD as kickbacks in the Rs.64 crore Bofors scam.

In the midst of the developments, an application was
Tuesday moved in the Supreme Court of India challenging the
CBI's decision.

In the application, advocate Ajay Agrawal sought the
direction of the apex court to stay the operation of any
withdrawal of Red Corner notice against Quattrocchi who
has not submitted himself to Indian court in connection with
the Bofors case.

Agrawal, who had earlier moved the apex court in
January 2006 against the defreezing of Quattrocchi's bank
account in London, sought issuance of a fresh Red Corner
notice against him.

In Rae Bareli in northern state of Uttar Pradesh,
Nehru-Gandhi scion Priyanka Gandhi denied the BJP charges that
the UPA government is misusing CBI to give the Italian
businessman a clean chit.

"Absolutely not" was her response to reporters
when she was asked to comment on BJP' allegation.
Left parties flayed the government saying it was the
"latest episode of misuse" of CBI and another step to bury the
case.

The CPI-M politburo said as long as there was a
Congress-led government in office, "subversion of justice will
continue" while CPI leader D Raja too questioned CBI's
decision.

Bofors delivered 410 Howitzers to India from 1986 to
1990. During late 1980's, the name of Quattrocchi first
surfaced in connection with the kickbacks. He was accused of
playing the role of middleman in clinching the deal for Bofors
company.

Quattrocchi, said to have been close to the Gandhi
family, was alleged to have received kickbacks from the
Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors for the contract to sell
155mm Howitzer guns to the Indian army. He had left India in
1993 at the height of probe into the Bofors scandal.

The CBI in June 2003 had managed to get two bank
accounts held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria frozen in the
BSI AG bank, London.

The agency had alleged that three million euros and
one million dollar contained in the accounts were part of the
payoffs received from Bofors.

However, in January 2006, these frozen bank accounts
were released on the opinion of the Law Ministry which had
sent Additional Solicitor General B Dutta to London. PTI SKL
PMR
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