No extradition treaty with Argentina: India

New Delhi, Feb 26 (UNI) India today said it did not have an extradition treaty with Argentina, indicating that the process to bring Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi to the country would not be easy.

An External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson said though an ''Extradition Treaty of 1889 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Argentine Republic was applicable to British India'', it was not operative in post-Independence India.

''Thus India does not have any currently operative Extradition Treaty with Argentina,'' the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the fugitive Italian businessman, who was detained and taken into preventive custody in Argentina, was released by a Buenos Aires court on a bail application.

CBI Director Vijay Shankar told the media this evening that Quattrocchi had been released by the Argentinian court on February 23-- the day the news of his detention was made public by the central investigative agency.

UNI