CBI wants UK to de-freeze Quattrocchi's accounts

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is reported to have asked Britain to de-freeze two bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, whose extradition India has sought for his alleged role in the Bofors payoff scandal.

CBI Director Vijay Shankar, however, refused to confirm this, saying he had just taken over and was yet to "study the file".

"It is important to establish whether there is a link between the Bofors case and Quattorocchi's London bank accounts," Shankar told IANS.

Britain had frozen the two accounts in 2003 after the Indian government contended they could contain part of the Rs.640 million payoffs for securing the Indian Army's order for the Bofors howitzers.

A TV news channel reported on Wednesday that India's Additional Solicitor General B. Dutta visited the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London on December 22, 2005 and requested de-freezing of Quattorocchi bank accounts.

It was unclear what the status is of the Indian government's request for extraditing Quattotocchi from Malaysia, where he has been living in exile after fleeing India in the wake of the Bofors case.

The Bofors kickbacks case had been expected to die a natural death after the Delhi High Court last year ruled that the Europe-based Hinduja brothers, who were said to have served as the conduits for the Bofors payoffs, had committed no wrongdoing.