Delhi court starts hearing Bofors closure report
A Delhi court has begun hearing the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Bofors scandal on Tuesday.
The CBI told the Tiz Hazari court that it has got no ?fresh instructions? in the case and wants to close the case due to lack of evidence.
The investigating agency also said that all attempts to extradite Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, the main accused of the scam, have failed.
“Twenty-five years have passed. All attempts to extradite Quattrocchi have failed. When will we get him, when will trial happen? So we have decided to withdraw the prosecution,” the CBI was quoted as saying to the court by CNN-IBN news channel.
On Monday, the ghosts of Bofors came to haunt the ruling Congress once again like a blast from the past as an Income Tax Tribunal claimed that Quattrochi was paid kickbacks by the Indian Government in the Rs 1500 crore defence deal.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is cornering the Congress over the recent scams, got a fresh weapon to embarrass the ruling party as BJP leader Arun Jaitley immediately called a press conference and demanded answers.
The tribunal said Ottavio Quattrocchi and late Win Chadha were paid 242.62 million Swedish kroners in kickbacks from M/s AB Bofors to clinch the deal to supply 155 mm field howitzer guns to India.
An agent of Swedish arms manufacturer A B Bofors, late Chadha was charged by the CBI in 1999 along with former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, Ottavio Quattrocchi, former Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and the company itself.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was hounded for his role as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors deal but later it was said that there was no evidence against him.
He might by cleared by a court in India in the coming days, reports said.
The tribunal said the kickbacks were paid in the 1987 deal (during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister) in violation of rules as middlemen are illegal in defence deals in India.
The tribunal said Quattrocchi and Chaddha are liable to pay income tax on bribe money they got while living in India.
India had to pay about Rs.s 160 crore more for the Bofors guns, it said.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Bofors news, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said “the cover up operation lasted two and half decades.”
“Bribery was accompanied by a huge cover-up operation. Nobody has answered why was Quattrochi paid the money?” he said.
“How can it be that CBI says that there were no kickbacks paid and the top revenue agency is saying that kickbacks are taxable. This is a discovery of truth by default. After this judicial order CBI cannot even hide its face,” said Jaitley.
Taking a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s five point suggestions to prevent corruption, Jatiley said “there is no need to have a five point programme” but the single point way to stem it is to the “send the corrupt to the jail”.
