Ottavio Quattrocchi haunts Congress even after death

NEW DELHI: A day after the death of Ottavio Quattrocchi in Milan, one of the accused in the Bofors scandal, a political war of words erupted here between the Congress and BJP. The Congress alleged he was a “ghost” created by the BJP, which retaliated by saying it should not think the issue can now be buried.


“Congress should not have this misconception that the issue is over because this case is a scar on the face of history of India. And as far as Quattrocchi is concerned, the CBI is yet to give him a clean chit till date,” BJP spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri told reporters here.

Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman, was accused of being one of the middlemen in the Bofors scandal, which has been haunting the Congress since 1987. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that in 2004 during the NDA regime, the Delhi High Court had quashed charges against Quattrocchi and the government of the day had not filed any appeal against that ruling.

“I don’t understand why Congress should react to the death of somebody who has been a ghost created by BJP. Somebody has died, his family deserves condolences,” Singhvi told a news channel.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar rejected the charge. “The ghost was not created by BJP but by VP Singh and if we created the ghost, it is because you were hosting it,” he said.