BJP wants Quattrocchi goof-up probed

NEW DELHI: The BJP has accused the UPA government of aiding Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in avoiding extradition by the Argentinean courts. Quattrocchi is the last principal accused in the Bofors payoffs case.

“The UPA government’s mission to save Quattrocchi has succeeded at the cost of the nation. The failure to secure the extradition of the Italian fugitive is nothing but a case of compromising on national interests to please the first family of the Congress. The facts emerging from the Argentine fiasco confirm the mala fide intentions of the UPA government,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in a statement. The main Opposition party has demanded an inquiry by a sitting Supreme court judge into the events in Argentina.

Quattrocchi, it would appear, had been given a clean chit by the UPA government’s law officers long before he was detained in Argentina on February 6. The government’s law officers — Attorney General Milon Banerjee, former law secretary R L Meena, CBI’s director of prosecution S K Sharma, Additional Solicitor General K P Pathak and B Datta — all gave the Italian businessman a clean chit.

The BJP has sought an explanation from the government on why SK Sharma, who was of the opinion that the entire Bofors investigation was untenable and that there was no case, was sent to Argentina. Sharma’s opinion was used by Quattrocchi’s lawyer Alejandro Freeland in the El Dorado court to reject the CBI’s request for Quattrocchi’s extradition.

The BJP has also asked the government to explain how all the government file notings on the case were passed onto Quattrocchi’s lawyers. “It is shocking that the defense council presented the Argentina High Court all the papers and opinions available only in secret files of the Government of India. These include opinions of Solicitor General Milon Banerjee, Shri Datta, Shri Pathak, besides Mr SK Sharma himself. This confirms our apprehension that here was a government trying hard to save Quattrocchi,” Javadekar said.

The BJP is of the view that the government’s plan to acquit Quattrocchi was evident right from the beginning. The government did not allow the CBI to file an appeal against the high court judgement which did not hold anyone guilty. Its intention was clear, the BJP claimed, in the de-freezing of Quattrocchi’s bank accounts in December 2005.

Earlier in October 2005, Additional Solicitor General K P Pathak had argued for de-freezing of Quattrocchi’s UK accounts on the grounds that the CBI was unable to show that the funds had any link with the payoffs in the Bofors case. He had also stated that in the absence of authentic evidence, the case against Quattrocchi would not stand in a court of law.

In December, additional solicitor-general B Datta had ordered de-freezing of the accounts and informed the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there was no case against Quattrocchi. The BJP maintains that the CBI should have trailed the $7.34 m paid to Quattrochhi’s A E Services by Bofors. Driving home the point on Quattrocchi’s involvement, and that of the ‘complicity’ of the government in letting him go scot-free, the BJP spokesperson said:

“The country cannot forget that there was a written contract between AE Services and Bofors, mentioning clearly that the former will help Bofors get the contract before March 31, 1986. The deal was completed on March 24 1986. The nation also remembers how 13 top secretaries and ministers cleared this file in one single day. The country also knows the relationship of the fugitive and the first family of the Congress.”