Extradite Quattrocchi, ensure interference-free trial: parties

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) Various parties, including the opposition BJP and the Left, today demanded the UPA government make all attempts to get Italian businessman and Bofors kickbacks accused Ottavio Quattrocchi extradited to India and tried in the cases pending against him in the multi-crore scam.

Meanwhile, after 18 days of wrangling to get Quattrocchi extradited, the Central Bureau of Investigation now finds itself in a quandary as it had earlier declared that it had no ''concrete evidence'' against him in the Bofors case.

Earlier, the investigating agency had in January 2006 asked a British court to defreeze the two accounts of the Italian businessman with a balance of three million Pound Sterling and one million US dollars respectively, which had been 'sealed' at the request of the Indian government.

''Yes it would be very difficult for the agency to get Quattrocchi extradited as the statements made in UK court seeking defreezing of his accounts could go against the government's effort to get him here,'' said a senior official involved in the extradition process.

The parties also castigated the CBI for concealing the news of the arrest, which happend on February 6, till now.

Urging the government to take immediate steps to get Quattrocchi, extradited to India, initiate legal proceedings and ensure that there was no ''political interference, the Left parties, however, ruled out the possibility of the return of the ''Bofors ghost'' on the national political arena.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said it was still ''unfortunate'' that the CBI chose to hide the news for as many as 17 days and broke it only yesterday, and also castigated it for allowing the British government to ''de-freeze his accounts.'' ''We demand that there should be no political consideration in the case and that the trial be fair to ensure that the guilty be punished. Besides, there should be no further delay in the legal proceedings as over Rs 600 crore has already been spent to Investigate a payoff of Rs 64 lakh,'' the veteran leader said, asserting since Mr Quattrochi ''is known to the Gandhi family, the government should take recourse to proper legal proceedings and not repeat mistakes like that of letting off the Hindujas in the case.'' Senior CPI leader and party Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha S Sudhakar Reddy contended that the case offered an opportunity to the Congress-led UPA government to ''restore its credibility.'' He, however, ruled out the possibility of the case taking the centre-stage again on political scene. ''But the BJP may try to raise the issue to a pitch that it again catches the fancy of the countrymen,'' he noted.

CPI(M) Floor leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia said it was unfortunate that the case had taken such a long time -- 17 years -- and cost a great sum to the national exchequer.

Forward Bloc National Secretary G Devrajan accused the CBI of ''criminal negligence'' for hiding the news for 17 days as Quattrocchi was detained on February 6 and the CBI got information the same day. He also demanded that ''no political interference be allowed to further water down the case.'' Meanwhile, the BJP accused the CBI of keeping the information about Quattrocchi's arrest under wraps ''to save the Congress from getting embarrassed'' during the elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

'Even now the information about Quattrocchi's arrest had come from the Interpol, and not CBI, which is an official wing of the International police,'' BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley told newspersons here.

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