New Delhi: An Argentinean court rejected India’s request to extradite Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors arms scandal, because of flaws in presenting the case.
The court of Judge Hachiro Doi in El Dorado has declared Quattrocchi’s detention illegal because India’s warrant against him was not backed by judicial documents.
A 1997 Interpol notice on the basis of which Quattrocchi was arrested on February 6 at Iguazu International Airport in Argentina was not shown to the court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleges that Quattrocchi, who was once close to late Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi, received kickbacks amounting to $1.4 billion from the now-defunct Swedish arms maker AB Bofors to facilitate the sale of 400 artillery guns to the Indian army in 1986.
The failure to extradite Quattrocchi is an embarrassment for the Congress-led UPA government, which is accused of hiding news of his arrest in Argentina and delaying the Bofors probe.
The CBI is red faced, as this was the second time it failed to extradite Quattrocchi and to make matters worse has been asked pay his legal fees in Argentina.
Quattrocchi, who insists he is innocent, first fought off the CBI in Malaysia where the Supreme Court in 1993 rejected India’s extradition request.
After winning in the Argentinean court, Quattrocchi said he was “very happy” and the judiciary system in Argentina had given him justice. ''I feel that I've been persecuted for 20 years. This is really terrible, but still I'm really happy,'' he said on June 8.
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