CBI takes Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi off the wanted list

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which defreezed Rs 21 crore stashed in a London bank in two accounts held by Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria in 2006, has now facilitated his travel across the globe by asking Interpol to take him off the ���wanted��� list.

Following a communication from the CBI, the Interpol has withdrawn the Red Corner Notice against the Italian middleman. The development that comes barely three weeks before the end of the Manmohan Singh government���s tenure has brought back the issue of the Bofors scandal to the centrestage.

While the Opposition attacked the efforts to help the middleman, considered close to 10, Janpath, the ���let���s brazen it out��� mob in the Congress defended the decision of the CBI. The government too energetically joined the efforts by saying that the agency took the decision on the basis of a legal opinion given by Attorney General Milon Banerjee in October last year.

���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),��� CBI spokesman said.

Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, who defended the CBI���s decision, said it acted on the opinion provided by the attorney general. ���The government has no role in the judicial process...law will take its own course,��� Mr Bhardwaj told reporters.

The CBI had approached attorney general last year for an opinion as to whether to continue with the Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol against Quattrocchi as the notice has to be renewed every five years.

Mr Banerjee cited inability of CBI 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 would lose its validity, particularly in view of successive failed attempts of the CBI to get the accused extradited from Malaysia and recently from Argentina,��� Mr Banerjee said.

The Italian businessman was named by the CBI in 1999 as an accused and, on the basis of a 1997 non-bailable warrant, it had sought a Red Corner Notice against him.