Author: Navin Upadhyay
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 21, 2006
Suspected of going slow on Bofors probe as
Rao's Minister---- While the Law Ministry's role has come under the scanner
in defreezing Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's bank accounts, sources
have told The Pioneer that Law Minister HR Bhardwaj was himself questioned
by the CBI in 1999 for attempting to slow down the investigations into the
Bofors case while he was the Law Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government
The CBI had reportedly examined Mr Bhardwaj
on allegations that he had sought to influence the Swiss authorities against
expediting the hearing of the Indian Government's request for handing over
important documents related to the Bofors case. Mr Bhardwaj's meeting with
Swiss officials and ministers were examined during his questioning, sources
said.
Though Mr Bhardwaj's examination was a hush-hush
affair, newspaper records of the period confirm that the CBI had indeed grilled
him. For example, in its issue dated October 28-November 10, Frontline reported
the following: "The CBI has received information that HR Bhardwaj, Minister
for Law under Narasimha Rao, had also sought to exert his influence to stop
the Swiss hearings on the case. He underwent one intensive session of interrogation
at CBI headquarters, but stuck to the strategy of stout denial."
With the Opposition clamouring for Mr Bhardwaj's
head, this vital piece of forgotten information could heighten suspicion on
the recent role played by the Law Ministry in aiding and abetting Mr Quattrocchi
to lay his hands on his share of the booty paid by AB Bofors to middlemen
and agents to clinch the lucrative Howitzer deal.
Mr Bhardwaj's link with Mr Quattrocchi goes
back to the time when the Italian middleman was believed to be close to former
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and top men in his government. Mr Bhardwaj's association
with the Italian business man was also revealed by Quattrocchi's two personal
staff during their deposition before the CBI in 1997. The two prosecution
witnesses had told the CBI that Mr Quattrocchi was very close to Mr Bhardwaj
and both spoke often on the telephone. Mr Quattrocchi also used to frequently
call on Mr Bhardwaj. In their deposition, the staff had also named several
other senior Congress leaders who were close to their master.
But the fact that Mr Bhardwaj heads the Law
Ministry on whose behalf Additional Solicitor General B Dutta told the Crown
Prosecution Service of Britain to defreeze Mr Q's accounts, is something which
is bound to raise fresh questions about the motive behind the UPA Government's
initiative to aid the fugitive Italian.
