NEW DELHI: Ottavio Quattrochhi, a former chief executive in India of an Italian company, Snam Progetti, is one of the seven appellants in a Swiss Cantonal Court against a lower court order to hand over documents pertaining to kickbacks in the Bofors gun deal to the CBI. This disclosure was made by R.C. Sharma, a joint director in the CBI investigating the Bofors case, to leaders of opposition parties at a meeting convened by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, V.C. Shukla.
Shukla had invited the opposition leaders, CBI, Defence Ministry and Personnel Department officials and others to “update” people about the progress of the investigation, a demand for which was made by Samta Party leader Chandrajit Yadav and others last week.
This is the first time that the government has officially admitted that Quattrochhi is also among the appellants in the Bofors case in Switzerland. The names of the Hindujas and Win Chadha had been officially stated earlier. However, the linking of an Italian with the Bofors case has been admitted for the first time because in Swiss courts only an affected company or person can be an appellant. Sharma also informed the leaders of the Opposition and ministers present that it would take a few more months before documents relations to the kickbacks were made available to the CBI by the Swiss courts. The legal procedure ‘was already going on for the supply of these documents which were being scrutinized by a designated court in Switzerland and appeals had been filed in higher courts against the supplying them to the CBI. The legal procedure in clearing the hurdles might take four to six months.
‘The opposition leaders wanted to know from the officials why Quattrochhi was allowed to leave the country and why he was not arrested particularly when his name had been mentioned in the Bofors deal.
It was pointed out that there was no law in the country to prevent a foreign national from leaving the country merely on the basis of suspicion against him. Unless the documents were received from the Swiss courts, it would be difficult to proceed against anybody in the cast.
Asked to react on the comments made by the Opposition leaders, he said “the timing of the meeting may be a coincidence.” He as Sorted that the Congress was going: to win in all states and therefore, there was no question of “sending mal to anybody.’
Shukla pointed out that the government wanted to provide the latest information to the leaders of parties as promised by the Prime Minister on the Bofors investigation.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 16, 1994
