Sonia is preventing extradition of Ottavio: Swamy

Chennai, March 2: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Friday alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was preventing the extradition of Mr Ottavio Quattrocchi, a prime accused in the Bofors case, to India.

Dr Swamy told reporters that Mrs Gandhi had pleaded with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who visited India in February, not to extradite Mr Quattrocchi to India.

“The Italian embassy in Buenos Aires has sent a request to the Argentinian government requesting that Mr Quattrocchi should not be handed over to India.

The embassy claimed that Mr Quattrocchi was a respected man in Italy,” Dr Swamy said.

“I was told about this by a minister in the Argentinian Cabinet, who was my student at Harvard University. He also told me that the Argentinian police arrested Mr Quattrocchi while he was engaged in illegal arms trade with Lebanese Shia militia and not because of the Interpol red alert notice,” Dr Swamy said.

According to Dr Swamy, the Argentinian authorities came across the red alert while they were verifying the credentials of Mr Quattrocchi in the police computer network.

“The Argentinian authorities alerted India on the same day but because of a conspiracy hatched by Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a lot of time was wasted and Quattrocchi went scot-free,” alleged Dr Swamy.

He said former CBI chief Joginder Singh had noted in a file during his
tenure that the Bofors scandal could be solved only by questioning Mrs Gandhi.

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