Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 17, 2006
CBI's U-turn saves the day for UPA govt
In what is seen to be a spectacular pirouette,
the CBI on Monday claimed ownership of the law ministry's controversial communication
to the UK's Crown Prosecution Service to allow defreezing of the bank accounts
of Bofors fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi even as the government and Congress
brass seemed to be in a "brazen it out" mode.
The agency; which was earlier learnt to be deeply resentful of the communication
signalling India's tacit acquiescence to defreeze the Italian businessman's
accounts, on Monday fully owned up to the stance conveyed by the law ministry.
By evening, PM Manmohan Singh broke his earlier silence on the matter and
endorsed the CBI's version.
"It was the CBI's decision, the government has nothing to do with it,"
he maintained in Guwahati, according to reports reaching here.
The about-turn was announced at a press conference hurriedly called just after
the Supreme Court took exception to the defreezing of Quattrocchi's London
accounts holding millions, and asked for responsibility to be fixed in what
was seen as a sign of the government's deepening quandary on the issue.
