Click to play videoNew Delhi: It was a story that shook the Indian establishment two years ago.
In January 2006, CNN-IBN reported that Additional Solicitor General of India, B Dutta, had allegedly told British authorities to de-freeze two London bank accounts of Bofors kingpin Ottavio Quattrocchi.
These accounts allegedly contained money received as kickback from the deal and were frozen on request from CBI.
Also under focus was the role of the Law and Justice Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj.
But did Bharadwaj make the de-freezing request? At the time, the Law Minister had denied any involvement.
But now, the controversy over his role during a late 2005 visit to London could resurface.
In November 2007, the Law Ministry said that while returning from the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Ghana, Bharadwaj "visited London to have discussions with counsels and solicitors engaged by the Government of India to represent or defend Union of India in various cases pending in London."
That was in reply to RTI activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya's queries on the foreign tours of ministers.
But three months later, in a reply filed to an RTI query on specifics of the 2005 London visit from CNN-IBN, the ministry has done a complete U-turn.
Bharadwaj never visited London in 2005, says the reply because "he had to advance his return to India."
This despite giving exact details on the money spent in Britain on tour. "If there is no purpose of hiding anything, why have three versions of the same story,” says Bhattacharya. ,” he says.
A key member of Manmohan Singh cabinet and close to the top Congress leadership, Bharadwaj refused to comment despite repeated requests. But the big question is why are Bharadwaj and the Law Ministry sending contrary signals on his visit to London? It was a visit that took place at around the same time that the process to de-freeze the Quattrocchi account was initiated.
“Mr Bharadwaj doesn’t seem consistent in his statements,” says BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain.
While the CBI’s case against Quattrocchi had floundered, the role of the Law Minister in the Bofors case will remain a source of contentious political debate.
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