Extraditing Quattrocchi not so easy

New Delhi: The detention of Italian middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi in Argentina might be the beginning of long diplomatic drama to extradite the main accused in the Bofors gun purchase scam because the man evading the CBI for 14 years has been detained in a country with which India does not have an extradition treaty.

The CBI has to translate all the evidence against Quattrocchi in Spanish before presenting them in Argentinian courts. There are nearly 150 files of evidence against Quatrocchi. The formal extradition request has to be filed before March 5 and also, without a formal extradition treaty, it is a tough task to bring anybody to India.

It took nearly a decade to bring Bombay Bomb Blast accused Abu Salem to India from Portugal.

Last year, an investigation by the CNN-IBN showed how the UPA Government had decided to allow the British courts to de-freeze the bank accounts of Quattrocchi saying that they have no evidence against him.

India's Additional Solicitor General B Dutta visited the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on December 22, 2005, where he allegedly requested them to de-freeze two bank accounts in BSI AG bank in London.

The British court had given orders to freeze the operations in the two accounts in 2003 after the CBI alleged that the money in the accounts was part of the kickback that Quattrocchi had got from Bofors.

Quattrocchi has an Interpol Red Corner Notice pending against him. In BSI AG Bank, he has € 3 million in account number - 5A51516L and $1 million in account number - 5A51516M.

Interestingly, the case against Quattrochi was not part of the Delhi High Court judgment.

The case against him totally depends on bank documents from Switzerland, all of which have been authenticated according to the Indian Evidence Act.

Questions are now being raised about how seriously this case will be pursued by the same Government, which gave orders to de-freeze Quattrocchi’s accounts.

Why did the Government keep quiet for 17 days to make the news of the Quattrochi's detention public? Why have so many high profile meetings taken place to decide whether to press for extradition or not? - Simple questions that CBI and the UPA Government might find difficult to answer.

THE MURKY DETAILS
	In June 2003 the CBI had got information that Quattrocchi had received a huge sum of money into his UK bank accounts, following which it had requested British authorities to freeze the operations in the accounts that allegedly belonged to Quattrocchi and his wife Maria.
	Investigating into the money route, the CBI believed that the money had been routed to London through tax haven countries like the Bahamas.
	But later the CBI found out that the money was transferred from BSI AG bank’s branch in Lugano, Switzerland as the agency was probing the end-use of the alleged kickbacks received by middlemen.
	According to the Interpol Red Corner Notice: Quattrocchi and his wife Maria were involved in fraud and bribery committed in India between 1982-1987.