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Bofors scam : Government and CBI in for tough time

	January 23, 2006

The Government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) may face a tough time in the Supreme Court today, Jan. 23, when the matter of defreezing of Italian businessman and Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi’s bank accounts in London comes up for hearing.



The CBI reportedly does not have documents to establish that Additional Solicitor General B Dutta was asked to make any request to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to defreeze Q’s accounts. The agency will also find it difficult to establish that Dutta was carrying the agency’s brief to London for his meeting with officials of the CPS.



Harried CBI officials are burning the midnight oil to prepare a response to the Supreme Court notice on a PIL filed by advocate Ajay Agarwal challenging the UPA Government’s steps to unlock the frozen accounts. Last week, the court admitted the PIL and directed the Government to initiate a move to keep the accounts in freeze. The apex court’s intervention prodded CBI to hold a Press conference and claim it had sent Dutta to London to answer certain queries raised by the CPS in connection with keeping tabs on his accounts.



The PIL asks, under whose instruction Dutta visited London on December 22 to submit that the CBI had found no evidence to link the money in two of the accounts - Euro 3 million and $1 million with the Bofors payoff case. The PIL also sought direction for the Government to produce the letter/authority given to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service to defreeze the accounts.



Sources in CBI said, Dutta’s brief was only to convey the implications of various judgments of Delhi High Court in connection with acquittals of Hinduja brothers. However, they are baffled by the written request made by Dutta to the CPS to defreeze Q’s accounts.



“This was not part of our brief,” said a CBI official. “We will have no option but to admit it before the court,” he added.



The CPS’ e-mail of December 23 where it specifically mentions that Dutta had handed over written request from the Government of India and Law Ministry to defreeze Q’s accounts.



The CBI is worried about how it will explain to the apex court its decision to bypass the trial court in bailing out Q. “It amounts to closing a case. The SC could take a serious view of it,” a source said.



Sources also said that new CBI director Vijay Shanker is upset over the way the agency has been dragged into the controversy over a step initiated by his predecessor.





Money withdrawn from London accounts



Reports from London during the week indicated that Quattrocchi withdrew funds amounting to at least Rs. 20 crores out of the Rs. 21 crore in the two London bank accounts on Jan. 12, a day after the British courts ordered defreezing of the accounts. Even though the Supreme court on Monday, Jan. 16 ordered that Quattrocchi’s London accounts either remain frozen or inaccessible, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said that this could not be done. If the CBI wants the funds to be frozen again, it will have to move a fresh application with required documents and reasons for the action.



The Government also threw up its hands saying that it cannot do anything in the matter. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, speaking in New Delhi on Jan. 17, pleaded the Centre’s helplessness, saying that the Government had no jurisdiction over foreign countries. He said that at best the government can make a request to the British authorities to enforce the apex court’s directive.





Government does not meddle in CBI affairs : PM



On the CBI’s role in the episode, the Defence Minister echoed the Prime Minister’s observations that the Government did not interfere in the agency’s functioning. The Prime minister in a statement issued in Guwahati claimed that his Government never interfered with the CBI and its investigations.



“My government has never interfered with the CBI in matters of investigation. A controversy is sought to be created about certain steps taken by the CBI in the matter relating to the freezing of the Quattrocchi bank accounts. Actions relating to both freezing and unfreezing these accounts have been taken at the level of the CBI in consultation with law officials as per established procedure.



“Neither the freezing was under government order nor has the defreezing been done under government order. These matters are exclusively under the functional jurisdiction into which the government does not interfere. All steps taken in the matter are in accordance with established standard procedure in such cases. The autonomy of the CBI will be preserved in this government at all cost.”



Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought to drive home the same point when CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri met her on Tuesday, Jan. 17 to discuss the storm over the defreezing of Quattrocchi’s London bank accounts. She said that the Congress-led UPA Government had no knowledge of the CBI decision to allow the defreezing of the bank accounts. Sonia Gandhi said the Bofors case which had been dragging for the past 20 years, should reach a conclusion soon.



The BJP, on its part, continued its agitation on the Quattrocchi issue last week. A BJP-led NDA delegation met President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Friday, Jan. 20, seeking his intervention to ensure that Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj resigned over the Quattrocchi issue. The delegation comprised BJP leader L.K. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and NDA convener George Fernandes, among others. It submitted a memorandum to the President accusing the UPA Government and the Congress of gross and scandalous abuse of power and of democratic institutions to help an Italian fugitive in the Bofors bribery case.



“It is a case of subversion of institutions, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, and an attempt to sweep things under the carpet to suppress a scandal to save the culprits,” Advani told media persons after the 30-minute meeting with the President.



He also raked up the “foreign origin” issue saying that several countries, including the US, had barred persons of foreign origin from holding a constitutional or high position of office.



“This debate is not an academic exercise as national interest could seriously be compromised if such a system is not in place. The Quattrocchi incident has shown why a person of foreign origin cannot be Prime Minister or hold such a position where he/she can influence decisions.”



“The Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi should lay their cards on the table. They should come out with what has been their role, when did they come to know and what did they do to prevent the defreezing of Quattrocchi’s accounts,” he said.



Advani said it was explained to the President that charges could not be framed against Quattrocchi as “he had fled the country and not presented himself before the CBI.”



To a question, he said President Kalam assured the delegation that he would “examine” the issue.



In a related development, NDA convener George Fernandes wrote to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asking her to prevail upon Ottavio Quattrocchi to face trial in the Bofors case and get himself exonerated if he is innocent. In his two-page letter, Fernandes said : “Quattrocchi was a wanted criminal against whom a red alert had been issued by Interpol. The CBI was trying to extradite him to India to stand trial in the special court investigating the Bofors case. His formal charge-sheeting requires his personal appearance. The man, not so inexplicably, is dictating terms to India’s investigative agencies and asking CBI to come to Milan, Italy, for questioning.”



Fernandes said Quattrocchi had claimed during an interview to a private television channel recently that he was proud of his friendship with Sonia Gandhi and her family. He alleged that Quattrocchi was a regular visitor to their house during his stay in India from the 1970s to early 90s, had regular access to the Prime Minister’s residence during Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure and had free access to the South Block office of the late Prime Minister Gandhi.”



CVC asks for full facts



In an unprecedented move, the Central Vigilance Commission has asked the CBI for the “full facts” relating to the defreezing of Ottavio Quattrocchi’s bank accounts in London. Under Supreme Court guidelines, the CBI is not meant to include cases in progress as part of its review with the CVC. But the CVC chief Shankar, said the Quattrocchi case raised “pertinent points” on whether such cases could be included in the review.



On the handling of the Quattrocchi matter by the CBI, the CVC chief said, “There appears to be seeming contradictions in the statements made by the agency a few days ago and in the press conference addressed by a Joint Director. That is why we have asked for the facts of the case.”



On the role of the Government’s Law Officers in guiding the progress of CBI cases, the CVC chief said that he had already dealt with the subject in his 2004 annual report (the latest) : “Appeals to be preferred against lower court judgments by CBI are also subject to Government approval through the Law Ministry again. This compromises the independence of CBI.”