By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit the Argentine court’s rulings rejecting India’s plea to extradite Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, the main accused in the Bofors payoff scandal.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice C.K. Thakkar and Justice R.V. Ravindran was hearing a petition by advocate Ajay Aggarwal, which sought the government’s explanation of circumstances in which Quattrocchi was allowed to take a flight to Italy from Argentina Aug 12.
The bench asked the CBI and government to file before it within four weeks the June 8 ruling of the Argentine lower court at Eldorado as well as the subsequent judgement of the apex court there, if any.
The bench in fact wanted the documents within two weeks, but it granted an additional two weeks after Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium pleaded for more time.
Subramanium told the bench that the court rulings were in Spanish and needed to be translated before submission.
Aggarwal has alleged that Quattrocchi was set free as the Indian government had not pursued the matter with due diligence.
Quattrocchi, 69, left Buenos Aires for Milan Aug 15, five days after India reportedly withdrew its appeal against the Argentine court’s rejection of its extradition petition.
India had earlier appealed in the Argentine Supreme Court against the June 8 decision of a court in Eldorado in Argentina that had rejected the CBI application to extradite Quattrocchi.
He was allowed to leave Argentina after fighting a six-month legal battle.
The CBI reportedly failed to produce the arrest warrant issued against him by a Delhi court in 1997. On the basis of this warrant, Quattrocchi had been detained at Iguazu airport Feb 6.
CBI alleges that Quattrocchi took $7 million in bribes as a middleman in the $1.2 billion purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB for the Indian Army in the mid-1980s.
However, he maintains that the Indian authorities have wrongly framed him.