In a twist to the infamous bofors case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has told the British authorities that the agency did not have any evidence to link the frozen three million Euros and one million Dollars of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in two bank accounts in London with the case.
Confirming this, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said the CBI had found no evidence to link the amount with the payoffs. Moreover, the Crown Prosecution and the British government had over the past two years been seeking evidence against Quattrocchi; for the latter had frozen Quattrocchi's bank accounts in United Kingdom and offshore islands on India's request three years ago.
Bharadwaj's statements triggered a political tsunami of sorts with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party seeking the law minister's resignation. The party said, "For having defied the law and for having interfered with in its due process, the law minister has not only shown his ignorance of law but chosen to indulge in its blatant violation. He deserves to be dismissed forthwith."
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has declined an urgent hearing to a petition challenging the government's stand before the British authorities in this regard.
In Picture: Indian soldiers load a Bofors artillery gun. Inset: Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
Photograph : MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images
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