The ‘Q' factor
Editorial, The Asian Age
January 18, 2008

I talian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi must be a happy man. For no government in the world could have spent as much money and time to defend a foreign national wanted for questioning in a defence scandal, in this case the Bofors howitzer case, that brought down a government in India. The Central Bureau of Investigation spent lakhs of rupees to chase Mr Quattrocchi across the world, and returned each time without the gentleman in question. In fact, it has ensured through deliberate bungling that he does not face the law of the land and every bit of evidence against him disappears into thin air. The latest is the aftermath of the Argentina escape, where the CBI was unable to pin any charges on Mr Quattrocchi and he walked out a free man, with the satisfaction of having the courts direct the Indian government to pay him a handsome sum of money. The BJP is right in pointing out that the CBI failed to submit the documents required under the Argentinian law, that it even failed to submit the court order of the arrest dated May 25, 1997, which was the basis of India's effort to get the fugitive extradited, and it failed to submit the documents to the Argentinian court for securing extradition. Mr Quattrocchi has made no secret of his proximity to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and was one of the few allowed free access to the Prime Minister's residence when Rajiv Gandhi was in office. He is also virtually the only living person who can throw some light on the Bofors case, particularly as there is sufficient proof that a certain amount was paid to him directly. As the Swedish investigator who spent a lifetime on the Bofors case, Sten Lindstrom, had told The Asian Age four years ago, the money was not enough to suggest that Mr Quattrocchi had himself played a major role in facilitating the Bofors deal. In fact, his name had emerged only very late in the transactions, leading Mr Lindstrom to the conclusion that the Italian businessman was reportedly being paid for reasons other than Bofors itself, more as a "facilitator" close to the most powerful family in India at the time. Successive governments, including the NDA led by the BJP, have pursued the Bofors case, but not done enough to ensure that the guilty are brought to book, and the case, in that sense, is cracked. Bofors is important, as it was the first official confirmation of kickbacks being paid in defence deals, with the story having been broken by the Swedish radio. It remains important as it has since become one of the most perfect cover-ups of political complicity with the primary investigating agency of the government unable to even extradite Mr Quattrocchi to India for further investigations.