NEW DELHI, 24 January 2006 — The government yesterday admitted before the Supreme Court that money was withdrawn from one of the bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi on Jan. 16, five days after two of his accounts were unfrozen.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal had issued notices to the federal government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asking them to explain what steps were taken by them to prevent Quattrocchi from withdrawing the amount from a London bank.
On a petition filed by lawyer Ajay Agarwal, the bench had directed the government and the agency to take steps to ensure that the status quo is maintained on the accounts which were frozen in July 2003. Agarwal moved the Supreme Court after a reported request by the government to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), London, for unfreezing of Quattrocchi’s bank accounts.
The CBI has requested Interpol and the Indian High Commission in London to take steps to comply with the Supreme Court order. In the affidavit, the CBI said it would examine whether Quattrocchi, who is an accused in the Bofors bribery case, could be extradited.
In another development, the Delhi High Court yesterday sought proper amendment to a petition filed by a journalist alleging that the government was trying to “hush up” involvement of the Congress party and Reliance Petroleum Ltd, named as non-contractual beneficiaries in the Volcker Committee report on Iraqi oil payoffs.
A division bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma, taking up a case filed by Sunil Tripathi, asked the petitioner to explain clearly as to what was the “discriminatory approach” adopted by the government in the scandal that is currently being investigated by committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice S.C. Pathak.
The court also asked the petitioner to explain the grounds on which the government had failed to exercise the powers vested with it in the matter. Granting the petitioner two weeks to file the amended petition along with an affidavit, the court posted the matter for further hearing on Feb. 28.
