Bid To Extradite Quattrocchi Based On Charges - Not Opinion

New Delhi, Feb 25 (UNI) Opinion furnished by one government to another does not alter court records or charges against Bofors case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, lawyers say.

''An opinion furnished in his interest cannot write off the charges he faces in Indian courts,'' says an advocate pursuing public interest litigation in the matter.

Ravinder Kumar was asked if Additional Solicitor General B Dutta's communication to the British authorities, before Quattrocchi's bank accounts were defrozen last year, might now hamper his extradition from Argentina.

Kumar's petition for dismissing Dutta and Solicitor General G E Vahanvati for allegedly facilitating the defreezing of the bank accounts has been before Delhi High Court.

In a petition filed on behalf of Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, over which he presides, Kumar has accused the two officers of having failed to correctly advise the government on continuance of the Bofors cases.

Kumar says he has urged the Court to have British authorities supply the documents and assurances which led to the defreezing of the bank accounts.

Quattrocchi was detained by Interpol in Argentina on February 6 and the Central Bureau of Investigation intimated, but word of the detention was released to Indian media only on February 23.

The first step now, Kumar said, was to obtain Quattrocchi's extradition, which the CBI has announced it proposes to do.

Controversy has dogged the purchase of guns by India in 1980s from Swedish firm AB Bofors over payoffs allegedly made to middlemen in violation of anti-corruption laws.

UNI