UPA arm-twisting CBI to bail out Q, says Rajnath

BJP president Rajnath Singh said the UPA government was arm-twisting the CBI to bail out Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman and main accused in the Bofors gun purchase scam.

Addressing reporters on the campaign trail in Haryana on Wednesday, Rajnath said the CBI had earlier “acquired conclusive evidence against Quattrocchi, following which his bank accounts in the UK were sealed and a red-corner notice issued against him”. But the CBI made a “surprise volte face by telling court it lacked evidence against the Italian businessman”.

The UPA government, he said, was “blatantly tampering with the functioning of a constitutional organisation to use it as a political tool”, which, he said, was a grave sign of democracy’s decline.

The BJP chief also took exception to the appointment of a special envoy for J&K by the Organisation of Islamic Countries and said it was an attempt by Islamic nations to internationalise J&K issue.

He also warned the Centre against cutting down forces in J&K, saying that surrendered Taliban men, at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI, were  trying to infiltrate India. “The infiltration is still taking place,” he said. The Centre has withdrawn 900 BSF jawans from Poonch and Rajouri.

Rajnath also expressed concern at the US decision to increase aid to Pakistan by three times, and said after becoming India’s strategic partner the US should guard India’s interests.

Predicting a hung assembly in Haryana in the October 13 polls, Singh did not rule out a post-poll alliance to keep the Congress out of power. “We want to form a non-Congress government controlled by the BJP,” he said.