New Delhi, Ahmedabad:
Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors payoffs case, has been taken off the CBI list of wanted persons, sparking a protest by Opposition parties which on Tuesday demanded an immediate probe into the working of the agency for the last five years.
Following a communication from the CBI, the Interpol has taken Quattrocchi's name off the Red Corner notice lingering for the last one decade.
BJP prime ministerial candidate L K Advani said, "this is a very serious issue". "It is not a question of Quattrocchi alone but the entire role of the agency during the last five years which should be probed".
Putting up a brave defence, the Government said it had no role to play in the move by the agency which took the decision on the basis of a legal opinion given by Attorney
General Milon Banerjee in October last year.
CBI spokesman Harsh Bahal said, "The case has been under trial in the courts since 1999. CBI has taken action on the basis of legal advice of the highest order. We will inform the competent court on the next date of hearing (April 30, 2009)."
Advani attacks PM, Sonia on Quattrocchi matterBJP leader L K Advani on Tuesday held both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi "guilty" in the withdrawal of the Red Corner Notice against Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and said NDA will examine the issue if it comes to power.
"If this news is true then I consider both the Prime Minister and Congress President guilty (for the withdrawal of the Red Corner Notice against Quattrocchi)," Advani told reporters.
He also described this development as the "last nail in the coffin of the judicial process in respect of the Bofors scandal".
Condemning the CBI's decision, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said, "We will examine Quattrocchi issue" if voted to power.
Advani argued that this action by the UPA government showed its desperation before it is voted out of power. "They are not going to come to power. Else, they would have waited for elections to get over and then take this step," he said.
He said the 1989 general elections were contested on the Bofors issue and "the Rajiv Gandhi government which had won an unprecedented majority in 1984" lost the polls.
Advani, who has raised the issue of Indian black money in tax havens and foreign banks, said the UPA government had "allowed Quattrocchi's account in a London bank to be defreezed so that he could withdraw his money".
The senior BJP leader said the Narasimha Rao government had also been "soft" on Quattrocchi. "During the Rao government, prime accused Quattrocchi, who was considered close to Sonia Gandhi, was given the opportunity to go out of the country," he said.
Advani said government institutions like the CBI have been "misused" in the last five years when UPA was in power.
The former Deputy Prime Minister said the era of banking secrecy was over and India should work for getting back the black money.
Giving the example of Germany and the new dispensation in the USA, he said the Indian government should show interest in the issue at foray like G-20.