Plea to SC to restrain Centre from dropping cases against Quattrocchi

A fresh application was today moved in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain government from closing criminal cases against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi relating to Bofors payoffs and to take steps to extradite him to face trial in this country.

Advocate Ajay Agrawal approached the court pleading it to constitute a Special Investigative Team to probe into the alleged role played by some government officials leading to withdrawing of Red Corner notice against Quattrocchi and defreezing of his accounts.

He said the court should direct the CBI to withdraw the application filed in the trial court against Quattrocchi. 

Questioning the role of the Centre and its authorities, the lawyer submitted that there was conspiracy of not providing all the relevant documents before the extradition court in Argentina where he was caught by the local police.

Agrawal had earlier challenged the high court verdict after CBI had failed to file the appeal within the mandatory 90 days. The apex court has admitted his petition and issued notices to CBI and others in 2005.