CBI to issue letter rogatories for Chadha, Quattrocchi's extradition

George Iype, UNI in New Delhi

The Central Bureau of Investigation is issuing letter rogatories (letters of request) to officials of Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates seeking the extradition of Ottavio and Maria Quattrocchi and Win and Harsha Chadha. The extradition is being sought to bring to trial four of the alleged recipients of the Rs 640 million Bofors kickbacks case.

On Tuesday, the CBI announced that Quattrocchi and his wife Maria, Chadha, his late wife Kanta and their son Harsh received illegal commissions from the Swedish arms manufacturers Bofors which supplied 410 pieces of 155 mm howitzer guns at a cost of over Rs 14 billion in 1986.

Quattrocchi was the chief representative in India of the state-owned Italian firm Snam Progetti SPA. He left New Delhi on the night of July 29, 1993, about a week after the Swiss authorities released the names of the appellants in Swiss courts who had opposed the transfer of Swiss bank documents to the CBI. He is said to live in Malaysia now.

CBI sources did not rule out the possibility of a Bureau team visiting Dubai to question Chadha before he was brought to Delhi for standing trial in the case.

Chadha said on Tuesday that he was prepared to be interrogated by the CBI in Dubai, where lives.

Having established Quattrocchi's involvement in the bribery scandal, the CBI is now set to unravel whether the late Congress prime minister Rajiv Gandhi received any kickbacks in the controversial gun deal.

Quattrocchi was known to be a close family friend of Gandhi and his Italian born-wife Sonia.

A senior CBI official told Rediff On The NeT that the special investigation team, who are still scrutinising the 500-odd Swiss bank documents, will now adopt a two-pronged strategy to find out whether Gandhi was involved in the payoff deal.

Firstly, in the wake of revelations from the former army chief, General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, that the entire cover-up operation was done at the behest of the Prime Minister's Office, the CBI has decided to shortly interrogate Rajiv aides like former principal secretary Sarla Garewal and former special secretary Gopi Arora.

Former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, who is reported to have asked General Sundarji to redraft his request to terminate the Bofors gun deal, Arun Nehru and Arun Singh, ministers of state for internal security and defence respectively in the Rajiv Gandhi government, will also be questioned by the CBI.

The CBI will soon send letters rogatory to Panama, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein to locate the bank accounts into which Quattrocchi transferred the slush funds from the Berne-based accounts when the scandal came to light.

When the Swiss authorities froze Quattrocchi's accounts in that country at the CBI's request, there was no money in the accounts. The Italian businessman claimed in his affidavit that the money was transferred to a trust account.

The Quattrocchi-Gandhi connection was testified by former Bofors president Martin Ardbo, in whose diary was entered the initials 'Q' and 'R' on August 2, 1987.

The CBI hopes to unravel the mystery about Quattrocchi's trust accounts in the tax havens of Panama, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein once the elusive Italian businessman is questioned.

Though the agency has begun the process for the extradition of Quattrocchi and Chadha, the external affairs ministry does not think it is an easy proposition. "It will be difficult to get Quattrocchi extradited to India as he is an Italian, not an Indian citizen," a ministry official told Rediff On The NeT, adding that "however since he is alleged to have committed a crime in India, he is liable to be prosecuted in the country."

India does not have any extradition pact with Dubai. The Indian government is at present negotiating with the UAE authorities on the extradition of Indian fugitives residing in the Emirates.

Many believe Tuesday's revelations have embarrassed the beleaguered Congress leadership. The Bofors drama will help Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who depends on Congress support to run the United Front government, to keep a tight leash on Congress president Sitaram Kesri in the days to come.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued late on Tuesday, Chadha said it was unfair to drag his wife's name into the controversy because she was dead. He said his son was not actively involved in his business in the 1980s when the Bofors deal went through.

'I have neither given nor received bribes at any point in my entire career,' Chadha said.

But the CBI spokesman said the 500-odd page Swiss bank papers indicated that irrefutable evidence was available that Bofors had paid commission to the Chadhas and Quattrocchis.

Asked whether the CBI would consider sending a team to Malaysia to interrogate Quattrocchi, agency sources said the question would arise only in case there was no response to the letter rogatory.