UPA govt can get Quattrocchi extradited: Venkaiah

Chennai, Feb 25: Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today reiterated that ''if the UPA government at the Centre tried honestly'', it could certainly get Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of the key accused in the Bofors case, extradited from Argentina where he was detained on February 6.

Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Naidu alleged the UPA government had persistently attempted to give a quiet burial to the case by going slow on the investigations and de-freezing the bank accounts of the accused in London.

''Today, it is the Congress government which has held back from the people the information about Quattrocchi's arrest,'' he alleged.

''This was intended to save the party from embarrassment during the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand,'' he alleged.

He said, ''Now, it is the high time for the Manmohan Singh government to bring Quattrocchi here for prosecution without any further delays.'' Mr Naidu also alleged that various political parties in Tamil Nadu such as CPI(M), DMK and PMK, who earlier protested on the Bofors issue, were now trying to keep away from it.

UNI