CBI ready with note for Swiss to track Q146;s money

Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj8217;s Bofors egg on its face, the CBI is now scrambling for damage control, even preparing for a scenario i...

Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj8217;s Bofors egg on its face, the CBI is now scrambling for damage control, even preparing for a scenario in which accused Ottavio Quattrocchi8217;s London accounts are defrozen. It has drafted a fresh Letter Rogatory LR to be sent to Berne, Switzerland, because this is where the Rs 21 crore in the two London accounts came from. And has begun extradition proceedings to get Quattrocchi from Italy, where he is now residing.

In May 2003, according to Interpol, 1 million and Euro 3 million were remitted from BSI Lugano, Switzerland, to BSI AG London. The accounts were frozen in July 2003.

8220;Our request for sending the LR is already with the Government and the document has been drafted,8217;8217; a top CBI official told The Sunday Express.

8220;Once the approval comes, we will move the court for despatch of the LR to Switzerland. If the London accounts are defrozen and fresh evidence comes, we will again move for getting a restraint order on the funds.8217;8217;

Not just this. The CBI has also started extradition proceedings against Quattrocchi in Italy. 8220;As with Malaysia where Quattrocchi once was, India does not have an extradition treaty with Italy but the success of an extradition request depends upon the bilateral relations with a country. That process is also on and the Ministry of External Affairs is already in the loop,8217;8217; a key agency official said.

As has been frequently done for accused persons residing abroad, the CBI proposes to move diplomatic channels and reiterate that a Red Corner Notice RCN is pending against Quattrocchi so that Interpol is alerted whenever Quattrocchi leaves Italian territory.

Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General B Dutta, who has disagreed with CBI and pushed for the de-freezing as early as February last year, submitted his report to the agency on the meetings he had with London8217;s Crown Prosecution Service officials last month.

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He is said to have informed the British officials of the implications of the two High Court judgments delivered by J D Kapoor and R S Sodhi on the Quattrocchi case since his lawyers had been pressing for the defreezing of his bank accounts.

Dutta also reported how he informed the British officers of the inability of the CBI to conclusively link Quattrocchi8217;s frozen funds with the Bofors pay-offs.

The ASG8217;s visit to London and the denial of

permission of the Department of Personnel and Training DoPT for a CBI official to accompany him on the trip, has sparked off an unprecedented controversy in the agency and the Government.

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Following repeated queries from London on what Delhi was doing on the Quattrocchi case, in November 2005, then Director U S Mishra moved a proposal that a team comprising a senior law officer and a senior CBI investigator travel to London.

All such clearances for foreign visits come from the DoPT, which is the administrative Ministry which CBI works under.

Later, a proposal was moved by CBI8217;s Director of Prosecution, S K Sharma , who is a Law Ministry official that it should be Dutta who travels to London with a CBI official since he had argued the Bofors cases for CBI in the High Court.

This despite the fact that there8217;s no precedent for an ASG to represent the CBI on such a sensitive mission and that, too, unaccompanied by an investigating officer familiar with the case.

Heat is on: SC lists Bofors PIL for Monday

	nbsp;	Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices C K Thakker and R V Raveendran will hear Ajay Agarwal8217;s PIL: PIL8217;s key points: 8226; How can you move to defreeze without trial court8217;s permission? 8226; Quattrocchi accessing the funds likely to fuel political controversy over the government assisting the businessman 8226; ASG Dutta be asked to produce letter/authority he carried to the Crown Prosecution Services CPS for defreezing 8226; Who instructed him to visit London 8226; Centre should be directed to stop any request made to the CPS 8226; Bhardwaj be asked to explain 8220;under which authority,8221; he is making statements that no case exists against Quattrocchi	nbsp;

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Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More