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THE NATION:
BOFORS SCANDAL
Closing
In On Mr Q
The gun
deal takes a new twist with the arrest of Quattrocchi in Malaysia-giving
a fillip to the CBI probe
By
Sayantan Chakravarty
Last
year in the icy mountains of Kargil, the Bofors guns boomed ominously
for Pakistan. Last week in Delhi the guns began to reverberate portentously
once again.
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| For
the CBI team led by director R.K. Raghavan (right) and special director
P.C. Sharma, the Quattrocchi arrest has been a morale booster |
The stage
for the Bofors show this time however was a couple of thousand miles away
in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur where Italian businessman Ottavio
Quattrocchi was arrested by local authorities on December 20. It was a
significant development in the over 14-year-old field howitzer gun deal
case. For Quattrocchi, a prime accused in the bribery scandal, had successfully
evaded arrest since he fled India on July 29, 1993 shortly after his appeals
in Switzerland for disallowing Indian investigators access to his bank
accounts were struck down by the Federal Court.
Quattrocchi,
a close friend of the Gandhi family who represented the Italian fertiliser
firm SnamProgetti during his 27-year stay in India, was taken by surprise
when the Kuala Lumpur police arrived at his 10th floor office on Jalan
Raja Chulan shortly after 10.30 a.m. on December 20. Within hours, he
was presented first before the magistrate and then in the sessions court.
After hearing arguments from both the defence counsel Mohammed Shafi Bin
Abdullah and state prosecutor Jagjeet Singh, Judge Achtar Tahir granted
Quattrocchi bail-but only after ordering his passport impounded, extracting
an assurance from him that he possessed no other travel documents, and
seeking two sureties amounting to 4,00,000 RM (Rs 47 lakh)from him. Also
present during the proceedings were officials of the Indian High Commission,
who were later joined by a two-member CBI team from Delhi. Quattrocchi,
of course, believes he is innocent (see interview).
 |
| Ageing
and frail Win Chadha now faces trial in Delhi. |
Quattrocchi's
arrest has been a hard road for the CBI, the Indian Foreign Office, the
country's diplomatic missions and even political leaders. Progress in
the case has all along hinged on cooperation of other countries-like Switzerland,
Austria and Guernsey, where the alleged payoffs were received-and Malaysia
where Quattrocchi has been a resident since 1993. In February 1997, the
then government headed by H.D. Deve Gowda had sent a two-member CBI team
with an arrest warrant against Quattrocchi but had to return empty- handed.
The CBI made little headway even after filing a chargesheet against Quattrocchi
and others in a Delhi court on October 22, 1999.
However,
things changed dramatically after CBI Special Director
P.C. Sharma
visited Kuala Lumpur, first in December last year and then again in February
this year. During these trips, he had detailed discussions with officials
in the Department of Extradition in the Attorney-General's Chamber. "It
turned out to be significant since until then the Malaysians were unable
to grasp the complexities of the offence," says Sharma who sees the
arrest as a great step forward in getting to the bottom of the Bofors
kickbacks scandal.
The Malaysian
authorities were elaborately enlightened by Sharma and a CBI legal adviser
on the reasons why the Indians had been trying to get documents from Switzerland
for a decade. They had to be convinced that what constituted an offence
of criminal conspiracy and political payoffs in India was also a similar
offence in their own country. Finally it had to be drilled into the authorities'
minds that it was vital that Quattrocchi be extradited (even though there
isn't an extradition treaty between India and Malaysia) for his trial
in India. It also meant explaining to the Malaysians in detail regarding
the entire case through material available in the chargesheet, supported
by copies of the fir (lodged on January 22, 1990), red corner notices
(issued by Interpol on February 17, 1997), his arrest warrant (issued
by special CBI court in Delhi in 1993) and bundles of bank documents that
the Swiss authorities had sent to India. But what swayed the Malaysians
and made them move against Quattrocchi was the contempt he showed for
the apex court in India. After the special and high courts rejected his
appeals for cancellation of the arrest warrants, the Italian moved the
apex court. Here too his plea was rejected and he was asked to present
himself before the CBI court by March 15, 1999, and remain in Delhi for
two weeks thereafter. The date came and went, but Quattrocchi did not
appear. The Supreme Court made a harsh observation: "We strongly
disapprove the manner in which the petitioner has conducted himself in
the proceedings before this court," on March 26, 1999.
The CBI
perseverance was supplemented by the gentle persuasive tactics of the
Ministry of External Affairs and in particular, Foreign Minister Jaswant
Singh. At least on three occasions he is reported to have taken up the
matter with his Malaysian counterpart and though diplomatic circles do
not admit it, it is said that India may have emphasised on the newly emerging
commercial relationship between the two countries to get Kuala Lumpur
to cooperate. Also significant is the fact that Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee is scheduled to visit Malaysia in the third week of January.
Besides, India's past and present high commissioners in the Malaysian
capital, P.S. Sahay and Veena Sikri, played a vigorous role ever since
a formal request for extradition was put in in March 2000. Admits the
CBI Director R.K. Raghavan: "It was some great work at the diplomatic
level that paved the way for the arrest."
All the
conviction and hard work has obviously paid off. On December 19, following
a telephone conversation between investigators in Delhi and Malaysian
authorities, two CBI officers caught the first available flight to the
Malaysian capital. The team is now assisting the special counsel of the
CBI in Malaysia, Cyrus Das, the state prosecution and the local Interpol
to help in Quattrocchi's extradition.
It may be
quite some time before Quattrocchi is extradited and brought to India.
Judge Tahir has fixed January 22, 2001 as the next date when the preliminary
issues would be heard out before the extradition proceedings go on trial.
If in the next few weeks the court does feel that it is in the interest
of the Bofors trial that Quattrocchi be allowed to be taken to India,
he can go on appeal.
But what
certainly goes in favour of the CBI, and those working in tandem with
the Indian investigators in Malaysia, are the various documented facts,
circumstantial evidence and observations of various courts made against
Quattrocchi. Ever since it came to light that it was Quattrocchi and his
wife Maria who were operating the accounts of Panamanian firms A.E. Services
Ltd, Colbar Investment Ltd and Wetelsen Overseas SA, the Bofors investigations
received a fillip. For it was into the accounts of AE Services that Swedish
gun manufacturer AB Bofors paid 3 per cent commission for clinching the
deal. What the CBI likes to establish is that this fact was known to Sonia
Gandhi and her late husband well, yet Rajiv misled Parliament and the
nation about the deal saying no commissions had been paid.
Quattrocchi's involvements became clear to investigators when six days
after Interpol Switzerland told India that appeals filed by Quattrocchi
had been dismissed by the Swiss Federal Court in 1993, the long-term resident
of India fled the country. Among the various things seized from his house
and offices in Delhi were photo albums and telephone records that showed
the Italian businessman's close proximity to the Gandhis. These were followed
by non-bailable arrest warrants and red corner alerts. But in spite of
the Supreme Court rejecting his requests for cancellation of these, Quattrocchi
did not appear before the trial judge of the CBI in Delhi. Now, with his
extradition proceedings finally underway in Kuala Lumpur, it may not be
long before he is forced to do so.
It is perhaps
no more than a coincidence that the Italian's arrest at the behest of
Indian authorities came just a day after the Vajpayee Government suffered
a defeat in the Rajya Sabha at the hands of the Congress-led opposition.
Congress leaders accused the Government of trying to settle scores with
their leader Sonia, whose close friend the Quattrocchis are. Such insinuations
were rejected by the Government. "There is no political angle to
it. His extradition is being sought in a matter related to some illegal
money transactions. It is a simple police and extradition matter."
For the
much maligned CBI, it has been a splendid year as far as the Bofors investigations
go. Win Chadha, another co-accused in the case who took base in Dubai
for close a decade, was brought back to India in March. A chargesheet
was filed against the three Hinduja brothers, another set of co-accused,
in October. The NRI brothers have been issued summons by the trial court.
And now comes Quattrocchi's arrest. Both dates fall on the same day in
January.
Quattrocchi
has to explain why he should not be sent to India for trial. The new year
this time for the brothers in London and the canny businessman in Kuala
Lumpur probably won't be a very happy one.
-with
Ashok Damodaran
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METRO TODAY
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endology, writes INDIA TODAY Senior Editor S. Prasannarajan. Celebrate
2001, celebrate the future in 