The investigating agency has dismissed suggestions that there had been a delay in announcing the detention of the Italian national in Argentina.
NEW DELHI: CBI is sending a team of its officials to Argentina to pursue the extradition of Bofors case accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian national who was detained there on February 6.
The investigating agency, which is racing against time to send a formal request for Quattrocchi's extradition in view of the 30-day deadline, will dispatch its officers to
Argentina "as and when required", CBI sources said here on Saturday.
The extradition request will be routed through the Ministry of External Affairs which in turn will forward it to Argentina with which India does not have an extradition
treaty.
Meanwhile, CBI Director Vijay Shankar dismissed suggestions that there had been a delay in announcing the detention of Quattrocchi on Friday, 17 days after it had taken
place. CBI had to verify his identity and also translate documents which were in Spanish before disclosing the detention, he said.
Quattrocchi, facing an Interpol Red Corner Notice in connection with the Bofors case, was detained and taken into preventive custody at Iguazu international airport in Misiones Province in Argentina while in transit to Buenos Aires.
The 69-year-old businessman, who was close to the Gandhi family, was alleged to have received kickbacks from Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors for the contract to sell 155mm Howitzer guns to the Indian army.
He had left India in 1993 at the height of probe into the Bofors scandal and is wanted by the CBI since then.
The news of his detention has come as a shot in the arm for CBI, which drew flak in January last year after a British bank de-froze his bank account.
The bank action came after the agency failed to provide any evidence to the British Crown Prosecution Service, which had frozen his two bank accounts having three million pounds in July 2003.
Interpol had informed the CBI that the accounts were frozen after the Crown Prosecution Service of London obtained the restraining order against Quattrocchi for operation of the bank accounts.
The accounts were frozen after the CBI had claimed that Quattrocchi had received 712 million dollars from AB Bofors through AE Services, a UK-based company.
After receiving this money, Quattrocchi had been transferring the funds from one account to another and from one jurisdiction to another to avoid detection and evade the due process of law.
Quattrocchi has been missing since a Malaysian lower court had rejected the extradition request of India and allowed him to travel abroad in 2002.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}