No extradition treaty exists between India and Argentina: CBI

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) The CBI, in its affidavit filed today in the Supreme Court, has reiterated that no extradition treaty exists between India and Argentina.

The government has also vehemently denied the allegation that it deliberately concealed the arrest of Ottavio Quattrocchi, the main suspect in the Rs 64 crore Bofors gun kickbacks scandal, by Argentinian authorities on February 6 this year.

The government has also admitted that it had the information of the arrest of the Italian fugitive on February 8, 2007, and claimed nothing was concealed from the Supreme Court on February 12 as the proceedings on that day were for directions to the CBI to retrieve the kickback money withdrawn from the two London-based bank accounts of Quattrocchi in January, 2006 after the accounts were defreezed.

The government, in its 17-page affidavit filed by Harbhajan Ram, DIG CBI, has also said though Quattrocchi has been released on bail on February 23 but his passport has been impounded and Indian government's request for his extradition is already pending before a competent court in Argentina.

The CBI has also said all possible efforts are being made through diplomatuic channels to secure the presence of Quattrocchi, a family friend of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, to put him on trial in the Bofors kickbacks case.

According to the affidavit, Interpol authorities were immediately informed that red-corner notice was still in force against him and he was required in India to stand trial in the case arising out of payment of kickbacks in the Rs 1400 crore Bofors howitzers gun deal which came to light in 1987. The CBI has been on the look out for Quattrocchi for over a decade and most of the major players in the scandal like Win Chadha and former Defence Secretary S K Bhatnagar have already died. The investigation on which the Indian government has already spent about Rs 250 crore is yet to be completed.

The government has also alleged that the petitioner Ajay Kumar Aggarwal, a Supreme Court advocate, has been conducting full-fledged media trials in the case and has been holding press conferences to make unsubstantiated allegations against CBI.

UNI