ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Delhi HC dismisses Quattrochi's plea for cancelling NBW

The Delhi high court has said the arrest of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi is required to uncover the truth of the Bofors scam.

The 1986 deal for the supply of 400 155-mm Howitzer guns to India by the Swedish A B Bofors was signed during the prime ministership of Rajiv Gandhi with whom, the Central Investigation Bureau says, Quattrocchi was on very friendly terms.

In a recent judgment which dismissed Quattrocchi's plea to quash the non-bailable warrant and the subsequent Interpol red corner alert against him, the high court ruled, ''He (Quattrocchi) is required to be arrested and interrogated for the expeditious probe of the case and to reveal the entire truth.''

A division bench comprising Justices Devinder Gupta and N G Nandi said his arrest and interrogation was required as the evidence collected by the country's prime investigating agency ''prima facie reveal that the petitioner was the recipient of fraud committed in the Bofors gun deal, which he received for himself and on behalf of certain public servants.''

The bench upheld the ruling of Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke in issuing the non-bailable warrant and asking the CBI to arrest Quattrochi through diplomatic channels or the Interpol.

A CBI team headed by the then chief of special investigation team L Revenne Siddaiah had contacted the Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur, where Quattrocchi currently resides, to seek his arrest -- but the request was turned down.

The high court judgment made it very clear that the Interpol alert would continue to be in force.

Quattrocchi had approached the high court in April, seeking the cancellation of the NBW and the alert. Judge Bharihoke, his petition claimed, had no jurisdiction to pass such an order.

The CBI, for its part, had in a detailed affidavit linked the Italian middleman to Rajiv Gandhi and his family.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report