04-29-2008, 02:44 AM
<!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo--> Law Minister's 'missing passport' revives Bofors ghost
Sumon K Chakrabarti
CNN-IBN
THE MISSING LINK: Law Ministry says Bharadwah's passport ânot availableâ with them.
New Delhi: In January 2006, CNN-IBN reported that additional solicitor general of India B Dutta had told British authorities to defreeze two London bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrochi, the main accused in the Bofors scandal.
These bank accounts allegedly contained money received as kickbacks from the multi-crore deal.
The accounts were frozen on request from CBI.
Last month, through an RTI application, CNN-IBN found Indiaâs Law and Justice Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj may have made the defreezing request himself.
But in a reply to the RTI, the Law Ministry says that passport of their Minister is ânot availableâ with them.
"It clearly proves that Bharadwaj's ministry is trying to hide something controversial,â says RTI activist, Dev Ashish Bhattacharya.
In November 2007, the Law Ministry said that while returning from the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Ghana, Bharadwaj "visited London to have discussions with counsels and solicitors engaged by the Government of India to represent or defend Union of India in various cases pending in London."
But three months later, in a reply filed to an RTI query on specifics of the 2005 London visit from CNN-IBN, the Ministry did a U-turn.
Bharadwaj never visited London in 2005, said the reply, because "he had to pre-pone his return to India."
This despite giving exact details on the money spent in Britain on tour making the suspicions of a cover-up real.
Sumon K Chakrabarti
CNN-IBN
THE MISSING LINK: Law Ministry says Bharadwah's passport ânot availableâ with them.
New Delhi: In January 2006, CNN-IBN reported that additional solicitor general of India B Dutta had told British authorities to defreeze two London bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrochi, the main accused in the Bofors scandal.
These bank accounts allegedly contained money received as kickbacks from the multi-crore deal.
The accounts were frozen on request from CBI.
Last month, through an RTI application, CNN-IBN found Indiaâs Law and Justice Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj may have made the defreezing request himself.
But in a reply to the RTI, the Law Ministry says that passport of their Minister is ânot availableâ with them.
"It clearly proves that Bharadwaj's ministry is trying to hide something controversial,â says RTI activist, Dev Ashish Bhattacharya.
In November 2007, the Law Ministry said that while returning from the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Ghana, Bharadwaj "visited London to have discussions with counsels and solicitors engaged by the Government of India to represent or defend Union of India in various cases pending in London."
But three months later, in a reply filed to an RTI query on specifics of the 2005 London visit from CNN-IBN, the Ministry did a U-turn.
Bharadwaj never visited London in 2005, said the reply, because "he had to pre-pone his return to India."
This despite giving exact details on the money spent in Britain on tour making the suspicions of a cover-up real.