Lawyer files plea over Quattrochi ‘exoneration’

Delhi-based advocate Ajay K Agrawal on Tuesday petitioned the Supreme Court against the decision of the Central Bureau of Investigation to take Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi off its wanted list. However, the court registry is yet to slate his petition for hearing.

Quattrochi had earlier been implicated in the Bofors gun case. He was subject to an Interpol Red Corner Notice or lookout notice for allegedly receiving kickbacks worth Rs7 billion for India's purchase of Bofors guns the mid-1980s.

However, it emerged in reports earlier this week that the Congress-led central government had taken off Quattrochi's name from the "wanted" section of the agency's website, reportedly on the legal advice of attorney general Milon Banerjee in October last year.

Agrawal sought the apex court's order to the government that instead of taking Quattrochi off the wanted list, it should take steps to have him arrested and bring him to India.

This is not the first time Agrawal is moving the court over Quattrochi. In January 2006, he had moved the apex court against the government's decision to defreeze Quattrochi's bank accounts in London.

He had moved the court in the wake of reports that newly sworn-in Congress-led government has given its no objection certificate to a London bank to defreeze two accounts of Quattrochi and his wife Maria.