Case of Quattrocchi's frozen funds hots up (Part I of II)

Author: Dhananjay Mahapatra
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 17, 2006

Plug London accounts, SC tells centre

Stepping up the pressure on the Manmohan Singh government, already in a bind over defreezing Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's bank accounts, the supreme court on Monday directed the Centre to take steps immediately so that money did not flow out from those accounts.

Wanting to know who had instructed the defreezing of the accounts, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices C K Thakker and R V Raveendran issued notices to the Centre and the CBI, which is probing the case, and asked them to respond to Ajay Agrawal's PIL within a week. The case will be heard on January 23.

Before passing the order, the bench took into confidence additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam. The ASG made it clear that he had no instructions to appear for the Centre but agreed with the bench that a status quo order could be passed by the bench. After issuing the notices, the bench said, "Until further orders we direct the Centre and CBI to take necessary steps for maintenance of the status quo regarding the accounts in question, so that action is taken not to defreeze the accounts and if the accounts have been defreezed, then (to see that) the amounts are not withdrawn from there."

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