<b>Quattrocchi held in Argentina</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Quattrocchi, 69, was detained at the Iguazu International Airport in Misiones province of Argentina on February 6. âThe CBI has been informed by the Argentine authorities that Italian national Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors case and subject of Interpol Red Corner notice A-44/2/1997 (issued in 1997), has been detained and taken in preventive custody on February 6,â said a CBI statement.
The CBI said a request to extradite Quattrocchi to India would be presented through diplomatic channels to the designated Argentine court.
The Bofors scandal involving kickbacks worth Rs 64 crore allegedly paid to middlemen in the purchase of Howitzers, broke in April 1987. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court quashed all the charges against the Europe-based Hinduja brothers. The CBI did not challenge the HC verdict but the Supreme Court has admitted a PIL against it
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Lets see how Queen is going to save him. She should marry him.
CBI kept this sceret for more than 2 weeks. <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Â <b>Quattrocchi at last held in Argentina </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
CBI faces flak for hiding news for 17 days
The ghost of Bofors once again appears poised to return to the centrestage of Indian politics with the detention in Argentina of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the Rs 64 crore gun deal scam.
The news was broken by the CBI on Friday night, more than a fortnight after Quattrocchi was taken into preventive custody by Argentinean authorities at Iguazu international airport on February 6 in compliance with an Interpol Red Alert notice.
Sources said that Argentinean authorities had communicated to the Indian Government about Quattrocchi's arrest on February 8 and the CBI also came to know of the development on the same day.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Strangely, on February 12 the CBI had informed the Supreme Court hearing a PIL on the Government's lacklustre approach in tracing Quattrocchi that it had no clue about his whereabouts. </span>The petitioner had urged the court to seek CBI's explanation of the delay in recovering three million pounds withdrawn by Quattrocchi from two London bank accounts last year. Quattrocchi was able to withdraw the money after senior law officials of India told the London banks that the money was not linked to Bofors payoff. The court had asked the CBI to submit a detailed report of its progress within four weeks.
Advocate Ajay K Agarwal, who had filed the petition, said the CBI's conduct showed "serious disregard to the apex court and the agency is liable for contempt."
A day after the Supreme Court's intervention, on February 13 top CBI and Government officials had met to discuss the development and the course of action to be followed in Quattrocchi case. Sources said that everyone in the Government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were aware of Quattrocchi's detention from day one.
<b>The undue delay in the announcement led to raising of many an eyebrow</b>. Former CBI Director Joginder Singh said it was highly unlikely that the Argentinean authorities would take so much time in informing the CBI.
"<b>Normally such developments are communicated to concerned authorities through diplomatic channels without delay,"</b> he said.
The CBI statement issued this Friday evening said after confirming the veracity of Quattrocchi's identity and detention the agency has requested the Ministry of External Affairs for sending the extradition request through diplomatic channels to the Argentinean Government.
"Legal formalities as required under Argentine Extradition Act are being fulfilled on the basis of reciprocity as there is no extradition treaty between India and Argentina," it said.
The announcement immediately led to a rise in the political temperature with opposition BJP threatening to expose the UPA Government's laxity in bringing Quattrocchi to book in the 14-year-old case.
"We will raise the issue forcefully in and out of Parliament and expose the UPA Government, which had shamelessly agreed to defreezing of Quattrocchi's London bank accounts and allowing him to get away with the loot," said BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.
<b>Congress leaders were fumbling for words and few of them were willing to comment. In private, however, they expressed apprehension that the BJP and the Samajwadi Party would use the Bofors case in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to embarrass Congress president Sonia Gandhi.</b>
<b>The opposition has all along complained that the UPA Government was trying to bail out Quattrocchi because of his connection with Sonia Gandhi. </b>
The CBI said after observing mandatory legal and diplomatic formalities, extradition request to extradite Quattrocchi shall be presented through diplomatic channels to the designated Argentine court. "It is mandatory that the formal extradition request is presented within 30 days of his detention," it added.
Quattrocchi was on way to Buenos Aires when he was arrested in Misiones Province in Argentine, who informed the Indian authorities through diplomatic channels. Interpol, Buenos Aires also informed the CBI immediately.
Quattrocchi, who was close to the Gandhi family, was alleged to have received kickbacks from the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors for the contract to sell 155mm Howitzer guns to the Indian army. He had left India in 1993 at the height of probe into the Bofors scandal.
The news of Quattrocchi's detention may have come as a shot in the arm for CBI, which received flak in January last year after a British bank de-froze the Italian businessman bank account.
The bank action came after the agency failed to provide any evidence to the British Crown Prosecution Service, which had frozen his two bank accounts having three million pounds in July 2003.
The Interpol had informed the CBI that the accounts were frozen after the Crown Prosecution Service of London obtained the restraining order against Quattrocchi for operation of the bank accounts.
The accounts were frozen after the CBI had claimed that Quattrocchi had received 712 million dollars from AB Bofors through AE Services, a UK-based company.
<b>After receiving this money, Quattrocchi had been transferring the funds from one account to another and from one jurisdiction to another to avoid detection and evade the due process of law.</b>
Quattrocchi has been missing since a Malaysian lower court had rejected the extradition request of India and allowed him to travel abroad in 2002.
Besides, the CBI had been in touch with the authorities of Italy for ascertaining the whereabouts of Quattrocchi through Interpol and diplomatic channels
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It means CBI lied to court.
UPA/Moron SIngh/Queen Sonia were behind this episode. They cheated India's court System.
Wasted India's tax money.
They have no right to rule India.
Shame on them.
I cant believe the title of this
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/23bofors1.htm
Did Sonia dump Quattrocchi?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Congressmen were tight lipped about the news of the arrest. A senior leader of the party said that the arrest of Quattrocchi could not have taken place without the express approval of Sonia Gandhi who may have decided to dump him as he was becoming a liability for her and her party.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Did Sonia dump Quattrocchi?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
She is still milking him. Election is coming and so his money is available to him. It was Argentina fault; I think Sonia's India tried to keep it under wrap. CBI perjured themselves that they don't know where he is. Which also shows, CBI works for Sonia not for India
<b>CBI flayed for supressing information on Quattrocchi arrest</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Jaitley alleged that CBI's silence on Quattrocchi was intended to deny Argentia the evidence needed to detain him in that country. He also asserted that the absence of an extradition treaty between Indian and Argentina need not necessarily prevent his being brought back here. Abu Salem was extradited to India in similar circumstances.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Troubles' slugfest for Congress </b>
link
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
The detention of Quattrocchi couldn't have come at a worse time for the Congress.
Still trying to recover from the aftershocks of its aborted move to impose President's rule in UP, the party is now in the throes of a multiple crisis.
On the backfoot over the Congress-led UPA Government's failure to contain inflation and curb spiralling prices, the party was working hard on getting the Union Budget passed when its carefully kept secret about Quattrocchi's detention in Argentina's Misiones province surfaced barely 10 days before the deadline for his extradition was to expire.
<b>Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday, held several rounds of talks with the party's core group to find an escape route out of the mess. </b>
The crisis has expectedly driven the party's senior leaders into a shell. "This is something we have just heard. We don't even know whether this entire thing relates to a, b or c. The Congress maintains that legal processes must be left alone," spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
To Gandhi's discomfiture, doubts about the UPA's sincerity in prosecuting Quattrocchi are being expressed by not only the BJP and anti-Congress parties like AIADMK, but also the Left parties that provide critical support to the Government.
....
Crying foul from Chennai AIADMK chief Jayalalitha alleged that, "Knowingly, deliberately, time is being lost. After the arrest on February 6, now about 10 days are left for bringing Quattrocchi to India but neither the Centre nor the CBI has moved an inch to make a formal extradition request to Argentina."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They caught Queen pants down and now she want consultation.
Here other Queen is Right.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Criminal silence </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Congress, CBI collude to help Mr 'Q'
The political executive and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been caught trying to protect Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's interests for the second time since the Congress came to power at the head of the UPA Government. Early last year, the CBI had allowed Mr Quattrocchi to walk away with Rs 21 crore after his London bank accounts, which had been frozen in July 2003 after the then NDA regime had made out a case that the money was part of the Bofors payola, were unfrozen. On that occasion, a senior law officer of the Union Law Ministry had travelled to London to plead Mr Quattrocchi's case and facilitate the withdrawal of funds widely believed to be part of the bribes paid by the Swedish arms manufacturer, AB Bofors, to secure the 155 mm field-gun deal when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. In fact, Swiss investigators were pretty sure that the money was tainted and it was on the basis of documentation received from them that the NDA Government had sought and secured the freezing of the London bank accounts. Now it transpires that both the political executive and the CBI have colluded to suppress the information that Mr Quattrocchi was detained on February 6 by Argentinian authorities at Iguazu International Airport on the basis of an Interpol 'Red Corner' notice issued at CBI's behest in 1997. We can be sure that Interpol informed the CBI immediately about the detention; we can also take it for granted that the Argentinian Government informed our Government through diplomatic channels that one of India's most wanted men was in its custody. Since New Delhi does not have an extradition treaty with Buenos Aires, the Government of India had 30 days to submit papers, convince the Argentinian authorities and secure Mr Quattrocchi's custody. Of those 30 days, 18 have been wilfully wasted by the CBI and its political masters in trying to hide the fact of Mr Quattrocchi's detention. Worse, a week after the well-connected Italian middleman was detained, the CBI feigned ignorance of his whereabouts in the Supreme Court on February 12. By February 13, senior Ministers of the Government and CBI officials were conferring on how to keep the whole affair a secret, knowing full well they could not possibly do so.
That the Congress, more so the Prime Minister, should be interested in protecting Mr Quattrocchi does not come as a surprise; after all,<b> the Italian's proximity to the Congress president makes him what in official parlance is known as 'Very Very Important Person'. </b>Let us not forget that it was another Congress Prime Minister - PV Narasimha Rao - who allowed Mr Quattrocchi to slip out of India and escape prosecution if not a prolonged stay in prison. <b>But the manner in which the CBI, which is supposed to be an autonomous investigating agency, has chosen to crawl before the regime of the day to appease those who hold the reins of power, is both shameful and debasing for the entire country. This is not about morally corrupt, spineless individuals doing the political executive's bidding to secure post-retirement sinecures. It is about bringing India's criminal justice system into disrepute. The CBI Director is entirely responsible for letting things come to such a sorry pass and making a mockery of the CBI's motto</b>. The judiciary must take note of this, as well as the agency's brazen attempt to mislead the Supreme Court. To disregard either would be a travesty of justice for which India has been waiting for nearly two decades
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
03-03-2007, 10:37 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-03-2007, 10:38 AM by Husky.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6410533.stm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friday, 2 March 2007, 05:30 GMTÂ
<b>India wants suspect extradited </b>
[Photo caption: Ottavio Quattrocchi is on Interpol's wanted list]
India has made a formal request to Argentina for the extradition of an Italian businessman named in a major bribery case.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February. A court released him on bail last week, but barred him from leaving the country.
He is accused in the Bofors corruption case, one of the highest-profile and longest-running in India.
Authorities say Mr Quattrocchi took $7m in bribes in the deal, which he denies.
The businessman says he is the victim of a political vendetta in India.
<b>'No proof'</b>
A team of federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrived in Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on Thursday and filed paperwork needed for the extradition with the foreign ministry.
"We have submitted our documentation. It is now for the Argentinian authorities to take the case," CBI director of prosecution, SK Sharma, told reporters outside the foreign ministry.
But Mr Quattrocchi's lawyer, Alejandro Freeland, said, "There is not a single proof (against my client). We cannot understand how this order of arrest is alive."
Argentinian officials declined to comment.
India has no extradition treaty with Argentina.
Earlier in the week, India's Supreme Court gave the federal government and its top investigative agency, the CBI, a week to explain why it was not informed of Mr Quattrocchi's arrest.
<b>Politically sensitive</b>
Mr Quattrocchi was arrested almost a month ago, but news of his arrest emerged only last week.
The issue is extremely politically sensitive as Mr Quattrocchi was known to be a friend of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of India's governing Congress Party.
The issue has also rocked the ongoing Parliament session this week with opposition MPs calling for Mr Quattrocchi's immediate extradition.
Swedish firm AB Bofors was alleged to have paid $1.3bn in bribes over the sale of 400 Howitzers to India in 1986.
[Photo caption: Illegal commissions were allegedly paid on the Bofors guns]
The Indian authorities say Mr Quattrocchi was the intermediary in the deal, and received $7m in bribes and other illegal payments.
For much of the last decade, they have been trying to get Mr Quattrocchi extradited to India.
Interpol has issued a notice against him.
Mr Quattrocchi says he is a victim of a political vendetta because of his links to the Gandhi family.
(Liar. But no matter. He's in big trouble now. Huge. Santa Sonia can't save him now... He should give her up too. They can be incarcerated together. How romantic.)
The Bofors case led to the election defeat of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, two years before he was assassinated.
In 2004, Mr Gandhi was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing in the deal, which was signed when he was in office.
In May 2005, three of the billionaire Hinduja brothers were acquitted in the case.
The Delhi High Court threw out all charges against Britons Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja and Swiss citizen Prakash Hinduja for lack of evidence.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> http://www.asianage.com/
Sonia is preventing extradition of Ottavio: Swamy
By OUR CORRESPONDENT
March 3, 2007
Chennai, March 2: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Friday alleged
that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was preventing the extradition of Mr
Ottavio Quattrocchi, a prime accused in the Bofors case, to India.
<b>Dr Swamy told reporters that Mrs Gandhi had pleaded with Italian Prime Minister
Romano Prodi, who visited India in February, not to extradite Mr Quattrocchi to
India.
"The Italian embassy in Buenos Aires has sent a request to the Argentinian
government requesting that Mr Quattrocchi should not be handed over to India.</b>
The embassy claimed that Mr Quattrocchi was a respected man in Italy," Dr Swamy
said.
"I was told about this by a minister in the Argentinian Cabinet, who was my
student at Harvard University. <b>He also told me that the Argentinian police
arrested Mr Quattrocchi while he was engaged in illegal arms trade with
Lebanese Shia militia </b>and not because of the Interpol red alert notice," Dr
Swamy said.
According to Dr Swamy, the Argentinian authorities came across the red alert
while they were verifying the credentials of Mr Quattrocchi in the police
computer network.
<b>"The Argentinian authorities alerted India on the same day but because of a
conspiracy hatched by Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a lot
of time was wasted and Quattrocchi went scot-free," alleged Dr Swamy.</b>
He said former CBI chief Joginder Singh had noted in a file during his tenure
that the Bofors scandal could be solved only by questioning Mrs Gandhi.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tehelka asks: His son does business in India. Why canât the CBI get him?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In a related development, a day before CBI announced Ottavio Quattrocchiâs arrest, his son Massimo Quattrocchi left for Milan from New Delhi. (Lufthansa flight no.761) Quattrocchi Jr had been in India for the previous seven months. According to Quattrocchiâs immigration documents, he arrived in New Delhi on July 21, 2006 (Lufthansa flight no. 760), on an Italian passport (E 810484). Tehelka has information that he visited several cities including Mumbai and Bangalore during his stay.
According to the membership records of the Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IPEVCA), Massimo owns a company called ci partners in Milan, which provides consultancy services to mncs to help them establish commercial presence in different countries. The records state that CI partners has in depth knowledge of international markets, especially India, and that it has an office in Bangalore.
The fact that Quattrocchi Jr chooses to do business in a country where there is a court case, a non-bailable arrest warrant and several litigations pending against his father is remarkable. It is also remarkable that he left the country just a day before news of his fatherâs arrest in Argentina became public knowledge. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Runaway Romans
Sandhya Jain
PA chairperson Sonia Gandhi\'s obvious complicity in the Government\'s appalling 17-day silence over the arrest of Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi is far more serious than ordinary suppression of information or contempt of the Supreme Court. Now that so much is known about the two-decade-old scandal, it is apparent that Bofors is not a simple saga of corruption in high places.
It cuts to the heart of national sovereignty, and exposes the fact that Italian intruders have been playing games with the polity from the time Ms Sonia Gandhi landed in the household of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This calls for a thorough inquiry into the activities of Mr Quattrocchi throughout his 25-year stint in India as representative of the Italian public sector Snam Progetti, as he did not just suborn the Indian tendering system to get lucrative contracts; he penetrated the top political, bureaucratic and even defence circles, and was entertained solely for his proximity to a foreigner married into a powerful family.
Since Mr Quattrocchi\'s relationship was always with Ms Gandhi, and he never became personally close to Mrs Indira Gandhi, it stands to reason that Ms Gandhi was a covert but active player in the politico-economic life of the nation in her so-called housewife years. This sheds new light on Rajiv Gandhi\'s entry into politics after the death of his brother, and explains Ms Gandhi\'s dogged determination to be politically relevant after her husband\'s assassination.
Some of Snam Progetti\'s contracts generated great controversy and ruined several political and bureaucratic careers. We need to know if Mr Quattrocchi used his eminence to secure contracts for other Western companies. This is pertinent because Bofors has revealed that this employee of an Italian Government agency, basically engaged in construction work, became one of the biggest recipients of kickbacks in a defence purchase deal.
Strangely, this purely private transaction by Mr Quattrocchi has not raised eyebrows in his native land in the decades since the scandal broke. Senior journalist MJ Akbar has pointed out that after spending some years in Malaysia, Mr Quattrocchi returned to Milan and lived there undisturbed, though Italy is presumably a member of Interpol and would be aware of his wanted status in India. This suggests that both Mr Quattrocchi and Ms Gandhi were crucial to certain Western corporate and perhaps even political interests in India, and this gave him his otherwise inexplicable immunity. It is also likely that the Vatican nodded to Italy to ignore the Red Corner notice. None of this bodes well for India\'s status as a sovereign republic, and a commission of inquiry is clearly the need of the hour.
According to Mr BM Oza, Indian envoy to Sweden between 1984 and 1988 when the Bofors controversy erupted, the tender for buying the Howitzer guns was opened and evaluated barely a week before Mrs Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984. At that time, the French Sofma gun was judged best in terms of price and some extra incentives; yet, Bofors was unethically allowed to alter its bid without re-tendering the contract. Subsequently, the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme came to be widely linked with his knowledge of the Bofors truth; hence it may be pertinent to ask if India should re-examine the larger circumstances in which Mrs Gandhi came to be assassinated by men who had once been removed from her inner security cordon.
This brings us to the abiding reality of Ms Gandhi\'s foreign origins, her enduring allegiance to her Western friends (or masters), and her misuse of her mother-in-law\'s and husband\'s office to bestow unwarranted favours upon Western corporate entities. Her current abuse of her status as Congress president to ensure Government silence over the arrest of Mr Quattrocchi merely continues a habit spanning over two decades. With most security experts and political analysts of the view that India will fail to procure Mr Quattrocchi\'s extradition, there can be no doubt that Ms Gandhi represents a serious threat to India\'s sovereignty and national security. In the fitness of things, her citizenship should be re-examined, and the issue of whether naturalised citizens should be allowed to contest parliamentary elections and offer themselves as candidates for high office, debated afresh.
Both Ms Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, who have maintained a deafening silence since the controversy broke out, should inform Parliament if they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the Bofors kickbacks. If not, why was the entire Government machinery compromised to give the contract to this company? Why was Bofors asked to dismiss representative Win Chadha and appoint instead AE Services, a Britain-based company fronting for Mr Quattrocchi? Finally, and most pertinently, since Mr Quattrocchi had no expertise in the armament business, whose idea was it to make him the \'unofficially Government-sponsored middleman\' in the deal? Whose hand steered this brainwave to its ultimate fruition?
Whose hand guided Additional Solicitor General B Dutta when he met the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) officials in London on December 22, 2005, and conveyed Government permission to defreeze Mr Quattrocchi\'s accounts, and let him run away with Rs 21 crores? What was Mr Quattrocchi\'s son, Missimio, doing in Delhi when his father was in detention in Argentina? He claims to have been a part (albeit invisible) of the Italian Prime Minister\'s delegation, and to be a frequent visitor to India for legitimate business interests which have nothing to do with his father. An enterprising journalist has revealed that his firm\'s website lists his father as a business adviser!
In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to ask Congress heir apparent, Mr Rahul Gandhi, some pertinent questions. To begin with, his true educational qualifications remain an enigma; he has not responded to questions about his Italian citizenship under old Roman law, nor revealed if he has an Italian passport.
But most worrying is his relationship with a girl from a dubious Latin American family. Three years ago, the lady had a vacation with the entire Gandhi-Vadra family, a highly unconventional action. Since then, she has been spotted often enough for questions to be raised about the MP\'s marital status. Does the lady serve any corporate interests and nurture political ambitions? What was her role in Mr Gandhi\'s shameful detention at a US airport some years ago? These questions must be answered.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3
Runaway Romans
Sandhya Jain
PA chairperson Sonia Gandhi\'s obvious complicity in the Government\'s appalling 17-day silence over the arrest of Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi is far more serious than ordinary suppression of information or contempt of the Supreme Court. Now that so much is known about the two-decade-old scandal, it is apparent that Bofors is not a simple saga of corruption in high places.
It cuts to the heart of national sovereignty, and exposes the fact that Italian intruders have been playing games with the polity from the time Ms Sonia Gandhi landed in the household of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This calls for a thorough inquiry into the activities of Mr Quattrocchi throughout his 25-year stint in India as representative of the Italian public sector Snam Progetti, as he did not just suborn the Indian tendering system to get lucrative contracts; he penetrated the top political, bureaucratic and even defence circles, and was entertained solely for his proximity to a foreigner married into a powerful family.
Since Mr Quattrocchi\'s relationship was always with Ms Gandhi, and he never became personally close to Mrs Indira Gandhi, it stands to reason that Ms Gandhi was a covert but active player in the politico-economic life of the nation in her so-called housewife years. This sheds new light on Rajiv Gandhi\'s entry into politics after the death of his brother, and explains Ms Gandhi\'s dogged determination to be politically relevant after her husband\'s assassination.
Some of Snam Progetti\'s contracts generated great controversy and ruined several political and bureaucratic careers. We need to know if Mr Quattrocchi used his eminence to secure contracts for other Western companies. This is pertinent because Bofors has revealed that this employee of an Italian Government agency, basically engaged in construction work, became one of the biggest recipients of kickbacks in a defence purchase deal.
Strangely, this purely private transaction by Mr Quattrocchi has not raised eyebrows in his native land in the decades since the scandal broke. Senior journalist MJ Akbar has pointed out that after spending some years in Malaysia, Mr Quattrocchi returned to Milan and lived there undisturbed, though Italy is presumably a member of Interpol and would be aware of his wanted status in India. This suggests that both Mr Quattrocchi and Ms Gandhi were crucial to certain Western corporate and perhaps even political interests in India, and this gave him his otherwise inexplicable immunity. It is also likely that the Vatican nodded to Italy to ignore the Red Corner notice. None of this bodes well for India\'s status as a sovereign republic, and a commission of inquiry is clearly the need of the hour.
According to Mr BM Oza, Indian envoy to Sweden between 1984 and 1988 when the Bofors controversy erupted, the tender for buying the Howitzer guns was opened and evaluated barely a week before Mrs Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984. At that time, the French Sofma gun was judged best in terms of price and some extra incentives; yet, Bofors was unethically allowed to alter its bid without re-tendering the contract. Subsequently, the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme came to be widely linked with his knowledge of the Bofors truth; hence it may be pertinent to ask if India should re-examine the larger circumstances in which Mrs Gandhi came to be assassinated by men who had once been removed from her inner security cordon.
This brings us to the abiding reality of Ms Gandhi\'s foreign origins, her enduring allegiance to her Western friends (or masters), and her misuse of her mother-in-law\'s and husband\'s office to bestow unwarranted favours upon Western corporate entities. Her current abuse of her status as Congress president to ensure Government silence over the arrest of Mr Quattrocchi merely continues a habit spanning over two decades. With most security experts and political analysts of the view that India will fail to procure Mr Quattrocchi\'s extradition, there can be no doubt that Ms Gandhi represents a serious threat to India\'s sovereignty and national security. In the fitness of things, her citizenship should be re-examined, and the issue of whether naturalised citizens should be allowed to contest parliamentary elections and offer themselves as candidates for high office, debated afresh.
Both Ms Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, who have maintained a deafening silence since the controversy broke out, should inform Parliament if they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the Bofors kickbacks. If not, why was the entire Government machinery compromised to give the contract to this company? Why was Bofors asked to dismiss representative Win Chadha and appoint instead AE Services, a Britain-based company fronting for Mr Quattrocchi? Finally, and most pertinently, since Mr Quattrocchi had no expertise in the armament business, whose idea was it to make him the \'unofficially Government-sponsored middleman\' in the deal? Whose hand steered this brainwave to its ultimate fruition?
Whose hand guided Additional Solicitor General B Dutta when he met the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) officials in London on December 22, 2005, and conveyed Government permission to defreeze Mr Quattrocchi\'s accounts, and let him run away with Rs 21 crores? What was Mr Quattrocchi\'s son, Missimio, doing in Delhi when his father was in detention in Argentina? He claims to have been a part (albeit invisible) of the Italian Prime Minister\'s delegation, and to be a frequent visitor to India for legitimate business interests which have nothing to do with his father. An enterprising journalist has revealed that his firm\'s website lists his father as a business adviser!
In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to ask Congress heir apparent, Mr Rahul Gandhi, some pertinent questions. To begin with, his true educational qualifications remain an enigma; he has not responded to questions about his Italian citizenship under old Roman law, nor revealed if he has an Italian passport.
But most worrying is his relationship with a girl from a dubious Latin American family. Three years ago, the lady had a vacation with the entire Gandhi-Vadra family, a highly unconventional action. Since then, she has been spotted often enough for questions to be raised about the MP\'s marital status. Does the lady serve any corporate interests and nurture political ambitions? What was her role in Mr Gandhi\'s shameful detention at a US airport some years ago? These questions must be answered.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3
03-07-2007, 02:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-07-2007, 02:41 PM by Husky.)
2 news articles (07 March 2007):
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=3
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Q may sue CBI</b>
PTI | Buenos Aires
Bofors case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi's lawyer Alejandro Freeland has said that Quattrocchi was now considering suing Indian Interpol for alleged breach of his human rights under international law.
Freeland said he believed that his client has a strong case under both the international law and Argentinian law against the CBI.
Meanwhile, the Argentinian judge, to whom the papers for extradition of Quattrocchi have been forwarded, has about a fortnight to decide on commencing the hearing.
Quattrocchi's lawyer is yet to receive "confirmation" that his client is to face an extradition hearing in Mission Province, but "expects to hear from the authorities there in the next 24 to 48 hours".
The judge, according to Argentinian law, will then set a date for a hearing within 15 days of receiving the papers. Freeland said he is yet to be given access to the CBI's paperwork and remained sceptical about its contents.
He suspects that the CBI may have failed to supply the Argentinian authorities with the 2004 and 2005 Delhi High Court rulings that, he claimed, show that the Bofors case "is based on lies and does not exist."
It is impossible for the CBI to overlook these two rulings, and that they cannot pursue Quattrocchi around the world when "their own courts have thrown the case out," Freeland said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>ADDED:</b>
http://content.msn.co.in/News/National/Nat...PTI_070307_1030
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sonia asks Meghalaya CM to step down </b>
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Blog this story
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday night asked Meghalaya Chief Minister J D Rymbai to step down from his post, ending his eight months' tenure in the helm of affairs.
Rymbai was communicated the party high command's decision when he called on the All India Congress Committee chief in New Delhi on Tuesday night, state Congress Legislature Party secretary Charles Pyngrope told PTI over phone.
Rymbai, who had gone to Delhi to attend a Planning Commission meeting scheduled for Wednesday, will come back here on March 9 and submit his resignation to Governor M M Jacob, he said.
Rymbai was not immediately available for comments.
The decision to change the leadership in faction-ridden ruling Congress in Meghalaya came just five days ahead of the budget session of the assembly.
Rymbai, who was sworn in as chief minister on June 15 last year succeeding D D Lapang in the wake of dissidence in a section of Congress legislators, had been asked to step down by two AICC functionaries Oscar Fernandes and Ved Prakash on February 26.
He, however, refused to oblige and sought some clarification from the high command.
After a meeting of Rymbai loyalists here two days later, Home and Parliamentary Affairs Minister R G Lyngdoh said that asking the chief minister verbally to step down was 'complete diversion from the normal procedure.'
Recalling the change of guard from Lapang to Rymbai, Lyngdoh said the procedures were 'short-circuited' this time.
The issue of leadership has been nagging the 29-member CLP since early last year. Although Lapang was replaced by Rymbai, the issue was far from settled as Lapang loyalists kept on raising the demand for reinstating their leader.
To settle the matter, the high command conducted an unprecedented secret ballot voting by all the 29 legislators on January 17 for electing a new leader of the CLP. However, the result of the voting was not made public.  Â
Both Rymbai and Lapang had, however, given undertakings to abide by any decision taken by the high command.
Congress is the major partner in the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance coalition other constituents of which are some regional parties. The state would go to assembly polls early next year.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
CBI blames Center for keeping it in dark and its hands tied. In a statement in court, CBI says it did not know about Q's bail in Argentina, while pointing to all the delays as done by the MEA and center.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=1
<b>Vajpayee told me not to touch Bofors file: George</b>
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070310/211/6d4wg.html
<img src='http://x1.putfile.com/9/26512533290.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Qtars Govt, CBI image </b>
Navin Upadhyay | New Delhi
Pioneer.com
Both exposed for misleading on facts
The raging row over the CBI's affidavit in the Supreme Court on the detention and bail of Bofors bribery case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi has further exposed the investigating agency and the Ministry of External Affairs to charges of cover-up.
It is a fact that going by the norms of international laws, the Government and the CBI could have done very little to oppose Quattrocchi's bail plea. The matter was entirely in the hands of the authorities and the police in Argentina, and the Indian agencies had no locus standi to oppose the bail plea.
Despite such restrictions, the Government could have despatched its law officers to assist and brief the Argentine police to effectively oppose Quattrocchi's bail in court.
The CBI's affidavit clearly alleges that not only did the Ministry of External Affairs keep the agency in the dark about Quattrocchi's bail plea, but the Government also made no effort to fly any legal officer to Argentina to pursue the matter with the local police and authorities.
It is ironic that last year the same UPA Government sent a senior law officer to London to help defreeze Quattrocchi's two bank accounts, which were believed to contain part of the Bofors payola. But when it came to opposing his bail, the Government developed cold feet.
It has now been established beyond any shred of doubt that the Government was aware on February 16 about the possibility of Quattrocchi securing bail, but the Government did nothing to keep him behind bars.
"Even if the Government could not directly opposed his bail, it could have appointed a lawyer to brief the Argentine authorities," says former CBI director Joginder Singh, adding, "But when the whole attempt is on cover-up, why should anyone take such pain?"
Contrary to the Government's claim that there was no laxity on its part to initiate extradition proceedings against the Italian fugitive, the CBI affidavit is a glaring testimony to the Centre's inactivity.
The CBI's claim that the Ministry of External Affairs did not inform it about Quattrocchi's bail and that it took seven days to provide extradition papers are serious charges. The CBI is not merely talking about the grant of bail to Quattrocchi on February 23, but the entire bail matter per se, which went on for days.
"The Government should have informed the CBI at every stage and asked it to prepare the background paper for opposing Quattrocchi's bail plea. Such documents should have been sent to the Argentine police within hours of Quattrocchi's arrest," said a CBI official.
What is obvious is that while the CBI and the Ministry of External Affairs translated documents in Spanish into English, the fugitive exploited legal loopholes to secure his release on bail. The Government of India did not even use diplomatic channels to persuade the Argentine authorities to effectively oppose the bail with the help of Indian lawyers.
The Government has so far not come up with any convincing reply to refute the charges levelled by the CBI in its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court.
Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma has used years of expertise acquired as the Congress spokesman to obfuscate the issue, saying the Government is extending all possible help to the CBI to bring back the fugitive. But that does not address the controversy triggered by the CBI's charge that the Ministry of External Affairs did not inform it about Quattrocchi's bail.
While the CBI has put the Government in the dock, it cannot escape blame for the great mess-up either. Even if it were to be granted that the Ministry of External Affairs did not keep the agency in the loop about the legal aspects of the case, is India's premier investigating agency so incompetent to have had no clue about the activities of an arrested fugitive? Were CBI officials not in touch with their Interpol counterparts and undercover agents? Why couldn't the CBI write to the Government, asking it to appoint lawyers to brief the Argentine police with the help of its own officers?
The CBI may find the going tough when the matter comes up before the Supreme Court. The Government may also have to do a lot of explaining in court. But the fact remains that the latest saga of la affaire Quattrocchi has further destroyed the credibility of both the CBI and its political masters.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I always say, MEA is full of crocks. Go and visit any Indian Consulate or Embassy.
<b>'Rahul, Priyanka's meeting with 'Q' son is speculation'</b>
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070311/211/6d5do.html
|
