No case against Q,advice to Govt was don’t do anything furtive: A-G

“My second advice was that nothing should be done in a furtive manner and everything should be upfront and clear. That is why the Supreme Court has been informed and nothing has been done without taking the Supreme Court into confidence.”

By “nothing should be done in a furtive manner”,Vahanvati may have been referring to the manner in which the Red Corner Notice against Quattrocchi was withdrawn by the CBI. In October 2008,then Attorney General Milon Banerji,in a four-page opinion,had made out a case for the withdrawal of the RCN saying it was “invalid” but that became public only in April this year when The Indian Express reported that the notice against Quattrocchi had been dropped from the CBI website.

Asked whether his opinion as the Government’s seniormost law officer also meant that the decks had been cleared for the CBI to file a closure report in the lower courts,Vahanvati said: “It is for the Public Prosecutor to decide whether to file a closure report or not. My opinion,based on a study of the case,is that there is nothing more in the case and,therefore,there is no point in keeping it alive for an indefinite length of time.”

He said he did not deliberate on the two unsuccessful CBI attempts to extradite Quattrocchi from Malaysia and Argentina but looked at what the evidence was. “When the evidence is not available,how is the case to be proved? And how long can you keep it alive?” he asked.