The UPA Government has brazenly colluded with Ottavio Quattrocchi to obtain a clean chit for him in the Bofors case, said BJP leader Arun Jaitley, adding that the “Government headed by the Congress has repeatedly compelled the CBI to actively cooperate and collude with the accused”. The BJP leader said ever since the “crime was detected in 1987”, the Congress has tried all tricks to avoid bringing the culprits to book. Till 1990, no FIR was filed and the JPC consisting mostly of Congressmen whitewashed the crime. An FIR was filed only after the Janata Dal came to power, he said. Jaitley said after the Delhi HC “erroneously held” that the Swiss documents were not properly authenticated and hence an offence against the accused could not be made out, “the Law Ministry under the UPA Government advised the CBI not to appeal against the order.” “In 2006, when charges were still pending in India, the Law Ministry sent an officer to England to inform the Crown Prosecution that no case was made out against Quattrocchi. The two erroneous orders of the High Court were cited to prove this. This lead to the defreezing of Quattrocchi’s bank accounts,” said Jaitley. He said the defreezing of Quattrocchi’s account in England in 2006 and the withdrawal of the automatic appeal in Argentina seeking his extradition were all proof of the collusion. “The Congress party and its functionaries may be foolhardy to consider the collusively obtained order to be a clean chit, but the nation cannot be fooled all the time,” he said.
