'Q' extradition: BJP demands judicial probe

New Delhi, June 11: The BJP today reiterated its charge that the UPA Government was trying to save Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi, prime accused in the Bofors Payoffs scam, "to please the first family of the Congress." The party demanded a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the failure of the CBI to get Quattrocchi extradited from Argentina.

"The UPA Government's mission to 'save Quattrocchi' has succeeded at the cost of the nation. Failure to extradite the Italian fugitive is nothing but compromising national interests to please the first family of the Congress. Facts emerging from the Argentina fiasco confirm the malafide intentions of the UPA Government," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said in a statement.

The party expressed shock that the defense counsel ''presented the Argentinian court all the papers and opinions available only in secret files of Government of India. This includes opinions of Solicitor General Milton Banerjee and Director prosecution in CBI S K Sharma. This confirms our apprehensions that there was a Government trying hard to 'Save Quattrocchi,' who was described by many as 'criminal in-law,'' Mr Javadekar said.

Seeking a explanation from the Government on two counts, the party wanted to know why Mr Sharma who is on deputation from the Law Ministry was sent to Argentina despite "his spurious legal view that the case does not exist against Quattrocchi. Besides, how were all the government file notings of this case passed on to counsels defending Quattrocchi.'' The party spokesman alleged the Government's attitude to save the Italian businessman was ''visible from the very beginning. First it did not allow CBI to file an appeal against the High Court judgement holding nobody guilty. Second, in case of de-freezing of Quattrocchi's accounts, Law Officer Datta kept CBI, a prosecuting agency, in the dark.'' He said Mr Datta had exceeded '' his brief by mailing to CPS of United Kingdom that there exists no case. This step was taken without informing the CBI.''

He maintained that there was a ''written contract between AE Services and Bofors mentioning clearly that A E Services would help Bofors get the contract before March 31, 1986 and the deal was done on March 24, 1986.'' The country, he said, cannot forget that the file was ''cleared by 13 secretaries and ministers in one single day itself and also the relationship between the Gandhi family and Quattrocchi.''

UNI

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