Bofors: The Quattrocchi trail

BY ENSURING THE arrest of Mr. Ottavio Quattrocchi, former representative of Italian multinational Snam Progetti in India, in Malaysia, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has managed to move forward in the investigation. The ``preliminary arrest'' of the Italian businessman by the Malaysian police and his release on conditional bail is bound to be followed up with judicial proceedings in the courts there to decide on extraditing Mr. Quattrocchi to India as sought by the CBI. All these could have been avoided if only the Government of India and the law enforcing agencies had shown some amount of seriousness in July 1993 after the Swiss Courts had released the names of those who had appealed against transmitting the bank documents pertaining to the Bofors payoffs to the Indian Government. The Swiss Courts had released the names (of seven appellants including Mr. Quattrocchi and his wife, Ms. Maria Quattrocchi) on July 22, 1993. Mr. Quattrocchi left India for Malaysia on the night of July 29, 1993. And this, indeed, forced the CBI to depend on the Malaysian authorities and go through the elaborate legal requirements of that country in order to get Mr. Quattrocchi to face trial.

After filing an affidavit in the Delhi High Court that the agency had information to the effect that AE Services, a firm owned by Mr. Quattrocchi and his wife, had received ``illegal'' payments to the tune of $ 7 million from the Swedish arms manufacturer, the CBI had also filed a chargesheet before the Special Court in which the agency had presented documents to establish the Italian businessman's ``connections'' with the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and his family; there is a direct reference in the chargesheet that the 155 mm Howitzer deal between AB Bofors Inc. and the Government of India was clinched only because the gun manufacturer had managed the services of one who was a friend of the then Prime Minister and his family; this indeed is the charge against Mr. Quattrocchi. This context had invested the trial (and the examination of Mr. Quattrocchi in particular) with a sense of importance. The idea that the trial must commence at least now is relevant in this larger context and hence the beginning, at long last, of the proceedings to obtain Mr. Quattrocchi's extradition is a step forward in the long winding Bofors trail.

The developments on the Quattrocchi front are bound to have their effect in the political realm too. Sections within the political class may find the occasion to pursue their own partisan agenda once again. But then, the Quattrocchi story is only one small (though important) part of the Bofors payoffs case. The CBI is already in possession of evidence pertaining to such other players in the deal as Mr. Win Chadha and also the Hinduja brothers. The Hinduja brothers, according to the documents transmitted by the Swiss Federal Authority, had received payments to the tune of 80,797,709 Swedish kroners from AB Bofors into their coded accounts - Tulip, Lotus and Mont Blanc - between May and December 1986, exactly the same period when the gun deal was clinched. The CBI has filed separate chargesheets naming them in the Special Court. The Hinduja brothers have relinquished Indian citizenship. The imperative for the CBI, hence, is to initiate the procedures seeking the extradition of the Hinduja brothers too in real earnest. Apart from this, the payoffs, received by the ``middle men'' in the deal by way of deposits by the Swedish gun manufacturer into their coded accounts in the Swiss banks, have already been siphoned off. Mr. Quattrocchi, for instance, is reported to have diverted all the $ 7 millions credited into his coded Swiss Bank accounts by AB Bofors Inc. first to the Channel Islands and to two separate accounts in Geneva and Vienna from there. It is imperative for the CBI to trace the end users of the money too.

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