With the PM assuring that the law of the land will prevail, the government moved to extradite Quattrocchi with a formal request being made to Argentina.
NEW DELHI: With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assuring that law of the land will prevail, the Indian government moved to extradite fugitive Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi with a formal request being made to the Argentine government.
Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed signed the extradition request late on Tuesday, foreign ministry sources said on Wednesday.
The request attaches 13 exhibits including details of former court judgements. It will be carried by a CBI team to Argentina that leaves Wednesday.
The documents on Quattrocchi, charged with corruption and fraud in the Bofors bribery scandal, were translated into Spanish, the sources added.
Since the documents weighed heavily in text, the team will personally carry them instead of sending them to Buenos Aires, said a ministry official.
The opposition had stalled parliament proceedings on Monday and Tuesday, demanding that the government come clean on its approach to Quattrocchi after he was detained by authorities in Argentina on an Interpol lookout notice on February 6. He was subsequently released on bail.
Manmohan Singh said that the government had done no wrong in its handling of the Quattrocchi extradition and the law of the land will be allowed to prevail.
The government said the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government could not extradite Quattrocchi because they failed to furnish evidence against him.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had said that India's request to a Malaysian court to extradite the Italian businessman was rejected as New Delhi could not furnish even a summary of evidence.
The Italian, who was accused of being a conduit of bribes as a middleman in the $1.2 billion purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB for the Indian Army in the 1980s, was known to enjoy access to the prime minister's house when Congress president Sonia Gandhi's husband Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension Suresh Pachauri said on Tuesday in the Lok Sabha that the CBI has fulfilled legal formalities in accordance with the Argentinean Extradition Act.
Pachauri also said the CBI was informed of Quattrocchi's release on bail on Monday with the condition imposed by Argentina's Federal Court that he will not leave the country.
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