Get Quattrocchi to India: Fernandes
by Sutirtha Sanyal

    New Delhi: Former Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes has written a letter to UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to prove her Indianness by getting Italian businessman Ottavio Ouattrocchi to face trial in India. He said that Congressmen have throughout her tenure as the party Chief proclaimed her to be "more committed to India than naturally born citizens", and it was now time to prove the words right. He said Ouattrocchi had in an interview to a private TV channel said, "he was proud of his friendship with Sonia and Sonia's family". He was also a regular visitor to the family during his period of stay here during the 1970's to the 1990's when he fled India to evade trial in the Bofors case. This apart, he had regular access to the PM's residence during The tenure of Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi, adding he had free access to South Block during the latter's tenure. The same Quattrocchi has been described by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a 'wanted criminal against whom a red Corner notice has been issued by the Interpol', he said, adding that Sonia was maintaining her silence despite having knowledge of his involvement in the Bofors kickback scam. "The CBI has been trying to extradite him (Quattrocchi) to India to stand trial in the Special Court investigating Bofors Case. And who knows it better than you that Quattrocchi is one of the main accused in the case as a recipient of the Bofors' kickback," he said.

    He said irrespective of what Sonia or her 'cronies' in the Congress believed, the fact was that millions of Indians were deeply suspicious of the way she, PM Manmohan Singh, Law Minister HR Bhardwaj and Minister of State for DOPT, Suresh Pachauri had acted in defreezing Quattrocchi's accounts in London. "The CBI's autonomy and credibility has been seriously undermined and the whole government machinery is bending over backward to help a fugitive from law who refuses to stand trial in India. The formal chargesheeting of Quattrocchi in court, requires his personal presence. The man, not so inexplicably is dictating terms to India's investigative agencies and asking CBI to come to Milan, Italy for questioning," he added. The only for Sonia to prove her commitment to the country was to ask Quattrocchi to come to India and face trial and get exonerated if proved innocent.

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