Major development, says CBI chief

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, DEC. 20. The CBI Director, Mr. R.K. Raghavan, told newspersons today at a hurriedly convened press conference that the arrest indicated the Malaysian Government's intention to extradite Mr. Quattrocchi quickly to India to face trial in the Bofors case.''

Describing it as a ``major development'', Mr. Raghavan said the agency had been pressing for his extradition ever since the first chargesheet in the case was filed on October 22, 1999. Apart from Mr. Quattrocchi, the chargesheet had named as accused the former Defence Secretary, Mr. S.K. Bhatnagar, the former Bofors chief, Mr. Martin Ardbo, and the former Bofors agent, Mr. Win Chadha. The name of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi appeared in the second column as ``accused not sent for trial.'' As Mr. Chadha also returned from Dubai and was granted bail, Mr. Ardbo, living near Stockholm, is the only accused who has stonewalled all legal pleas and summons.

The arrest of Mr. Quattrocchi marks the culmination of the painstaking efforts put in by the CBI.

Explaining the legal intricacies of the extradition process, the CBI Special Director, Mr. P.C. Sharma, who visited Kuala Lumpur twice over the past year to work out the modalities of the extradition plea, said that charges of cheating, receipt of kickbacks and corruption against Mr. Quattrocchi also constituted offences in Malaysia, making it a case of ``dual criminality.'' Secondly, Malaysian authorities were convinced by the CBI request that offences allegedly committed by Mr. Quattrocchi in India were ``extraditable offences.''

Describing the cooperation from the Malaysian authorities in the arrest of Mr. Quattrocchi as ``satisfactory,'' Mr. Raghavan said that the Italian businessman's extradition was ``a matter of time.'' Though there is no extradition treaty between India and Malaysia, he said that cooperation in criminal matters can be extended on a case to case basis.

Mr. Raghavan said that Mr. Quattrocchi's arrest was ``not a surprise'' and a CBI team was already camping in Kuala Lumpur to assist the agency's senior counsel, Mr. Cyrus Das.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office spokesman today ruled out any political angle behind the arrest of Mr. Quattrocchi. ``It is a police and extradition matter which does not have a political colour,'' the spokesman said in response to a query. He said that it might be possible to extradite Mr. Quattrocchi to India under the existing Malaysian Extradition Act. However, negotiations for an extradition treaty between the two countries have reached an advanced stage, he disclosed.

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