Advani slams Congress for clean chit to Bofors accused

NI Wire

New Delhi

Tue, 28 Apr 2009: 

Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani slammed Congress on Tuesday accusing it of using CBI for political purpose. The fresh assault came in the wake of the withdrawal of the Red corner notice against Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman.

Interpol remod the Red-corner notice against Quattrocchi who was being sought in India for criminal charges in relation to paying bribe in the Bofors scandal after CBI eliminated the name of Quattrocchi from its list of wanted persons and made a request to the Interpol.

Denouncing the move, Advani at a press conference in his constituency in Gandhinagar said the NDA would examine the issue if voted to power.

Dubbing the latest development (withdrawal of Red corner notice) as the last nail in the coffin of the judicial process regarding the Bofors scandal, Advani told reporter: “If this news is true then I consider both the Prime Minister and Congress President guilty.”

The BJP leader vociferously said the move is out of exasperation of the Congress-led UPA government since it has felt that the party is not going to come to power. If this were not true the UPA would have waited for elections to get over.

Accusing CBI acting as mere a political tool at the hands of UPA, the saffron party leader questioned if this holds no truth then why the decision has come just three weeks prior to the Congress-led UPA government's term ends.

Quattrocchi was considered close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and he was allowed to escape during the period of Narasimha Rao government. Later, he was declared wanted by the CBI and arrested in Argentina in February 2007. But CBI’s half-hearted efforts eventually helped it to lose the case for his extradition, Advani blamed.

The Bofors scandal broke in 1987 during the government of the then prime minister Rajeev Gandhi, who along with several others was accused of receiving bribe from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer- a type of artillery, and consequently led to the defeat of the Congress party in 1989 general elections.