By IANS,
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Wednesday slammed the Congress-led central government for its decision to stop prosecution against Italian businessmen Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Rs. 640 million Bofors payoff case.
“With this latest act, the cover-up of the Bofors bribery case is now complete,” said the party in a statement here.
“The decision of the central government to withdraw the case against Ottavio Quattrocchi comes in the wake of prolonged efforts to scuttle the case,” the CPI-M said.
The party alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was prevented from “pursuing the case seriously”.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium Tuesday told a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishanan that all efforts to extradite Quattrocchi had failed.
He said the CBI had taken the decision to close the case by also taking into account a Delhi High Court judgment of 2004 that had held that no case of corruption was made out in the Bofors deal.
“At every stage, successive governments headed by the Congress have resorted to various devices to derail the case and protect Quattrocchi,” the CPI-M said.