"Quattrocchi cover up deadlier than the crime" : Advani

New Delhi, Feb 26 (UNI) Terming the cover up of Bofors scandal as deadlier than the original crime, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior BJP leader L K Advani today said the conduct of the government was 'deceitful, dishonest and gravely damaging to national interests.' Talking to newspersons along with his Rajya Sabha counterpart Jaswant Singh, he alleged that the Congress party was placing its own and its party President Sonia Gandhi's interests above national interest, truth, probity in public life, and accountability. The country has not forgotten that Mr Quattrocchi was surreptiously permitted to escape from Delhi before a red-corner notice was issued.

Why was an officer of the Ministry of Law secretly sent to the hearings of Crown Court in London abjectly to submit that the accounts relating to Bofors pay-off and standing in the name of an errant Italian be defreezed and released to him? the two leaders asked.

Mr Advani said that the Government was on record in Parliament to state that the extradition treaty signed by the British during their regime was 'valid' and no fresh Treaty was necessary. Such being the case, having wasted away precious 20 days time, the government should now concentrate on bringing Mr Quattrocchi to India to make him face the Court and justice in India.

He said the claim of the agencies that they were pre-occupied with translations for 17 days was 'incorrect' They said all communications from Indian missions were always in English. "This is a dishonest plea. If there was any direct Interpol message to CBI in Spanish, it will not need more than an hour to translate", Mr Advani and Mr Singh said.

Why was the information about Mr Quattrocchi's arrest in wraps for over a fortnight. Why? To protect whom and for what purpose? they asked. The information was deliberately kept away even from the Supreme Court when the related matter came up in Court on 12th February. Why had the CBI counsel kept asserting that 'nothing has remained in the case"? Mr Advani said Mr Quattrocchi is a person who knew beneficiary of Bofors kickbacks and he should be brought to book.

Answering queries, Mr Jaswant Singh, who held the portfolio of Foreign Ministry during the NDA regime, refuted the charges from the Treasury benches that the NDA government did not make effort to get Mr Quattrocchi for six long years when he was in Malaysia. Every possible effort was made to get him from Malaysia, but it was not possible because there was no extradition treaty like India has with Argentina. The Italian scurried while he was facing extradition case, Mr Singh said. In the Argentinian episode the government and its agencies had piled one untruth over another, he alleged.

UNI