Author: S Gurumurthy
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: January 21, 2006
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/column/News.asp?Topic=-97&Title=S%2EGurumurthy&ID=IE620060120110740&nDate=&Sub=&Cat=&
"We have never seen the papers naming
him in the deal. They should show the papers establishing that he is guilty".
It was not a lawyer of Quattrocchi - now more popularly known as 'Q' - defending
him on the Bofors scam. This was how Sonia Gandhi defended her friend and
compatriot some six years ago.
This was in reaction to the media questioning
her on 'Q's role in the scam. 'We' - this was how she talked of herself and
'Q'. As she was asserting that 'we' had not seen any papers incriminating
'Q' in the scam, courts in Switzerland and India between 1996 and 1999 had
already indicted him in four separate orders - one from the Swiss court on
Sept 6, 1996; next from Delhi High Court dated Aug 5, 1998; two more from
the Supreme Court, on February 23 and March 26, 1999.
These orders were passed on her friend 'Q's
pleas.
All of them pointed to one fact. That is,
'Q' had received through three front companies and secret bank accounts $
7.3 millions which Bofors had paid to the bogus company AE Services. The courts
had seen through this gigantic fraud on three counts.
Count I: The Courts found that Bofors had
paid $ 7.3 million plus to a numbered account on Sept 3, 1986. To cover the
tracks, this account was emptied on September 16, that is, within 13 days,
and the entire money surreptitiously slipped into another secret account in
the name of Colbar Investment Ltd, a bogus company.
The bribe money was earning genuine interest
for two years. Suddenly, in July 1988 - after the Indian media began carrying
documentary proof of the payoff in the third week of June - the sums in Colbar
account vanished and stealthily moved into yet another secret account. The
new account stood in the name of Wetelsen Overseas SA, another bogus company
registered in - where? - South Africa!
Count II: The Courts identified the owners
of these bogus entities as 'Q' and his wife Maria; and also found that only
'Q' or she - and none else - could operate the secret accounts.
Count III: The Swiss court noted that Bofors
had paid 'Q' not out of any love but as fee for a guaranteed performance by
'Q' to deliver the gun contract to Bofors before March 31, 1986 which 'Q'
had accomplished a week ahead of Mar 31! On page 7 of its order the Swiss
Court had said that it had notified its decision to 'Q' and he had no explanation
to give. On page 14, it rejected Q's contention that he would not get justice
in India. On page 15 it noted that 'Q' had 'relationships in India at the
highest level'. Who else was 'the highest level' in India at that time, in
the year 1986, other than Rajiv through Sonia?
See how Sonia's friend behaved with law and
courts. Precisely how the guilty would. On July 23, 1993, Interpol Switzerland
informed India that 'Q's pleas were dismissed by the Swiss court. Six days
later, on July 29 the wily Narasimha Rao allowed 'Q' to slip out of India
to secure for himself peace from "10 Janpath". Would 'Q', a fixture
in Sonia household at weekends, have run away without telling Sonia? Not likely.
Rao then allowed the CBI to raid Q's house.
Diaries, family photos, and telephone records seized confirmed how intimate
'Q' and Maria were with Sonia. The raid led to a warrant for his arrest. The
Interpol issued Red Alert on Feb 17, 1997. 'Q' appealed to the Interpol Advisory
Board, got a six-month breather.
On Sept 30, however the Board rejected his
plea against arrest. 'Q' then moved the Delhi High Court, but the Court slammed
him for 'fraud committed in the Bofors deal', and said that he was 'required
to be arrested and interrogated' for expeditious investigation to reveal the
truth. 'Q' then moved the Supreme Court, assured that he would appear before
the Special Court and for interrogation and got his arrest stayed.
Led by this assurance, the Court ordered that
he should appear before the Special Court on March 15 and be available for
two weeks thereafter for interrogation. The man cheated the highest court,
did not come at all. The court condemned him in its order on March 26, 1999.
It was after this that Sonia claimed that
'we' had seen no paper incriminating him. After filing the chargesheet against
'Q' and others in the Bofors case the Vajpayee government got the British
authorities to freeze the bribe money held in 'Q's account. Now, six years
later, in 2006, Bharadwaj releases the bribe money to 'Q'.
With her hand full of 'Q's dirt, Sonia nonchalantly
says there was no political interference in the release of the bribe to 'Q'
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says "yes, there was no interference".
But leave the interference issue, difficult
to prove, apart. Will Sonia answer a few questions? After the four judicial
orders does she still maintain that there was no paper implicating 'Q'? Three
days back 'Q' has issued a statement from Italy that he is proud of his friendship
with Sonia Gandhi. Is she too proud of her friendship with 'Q'?
Now, the Supreme Court has asked the CBI to
prevent 'Q' from running away with the unfrozen bribe money. But her friend
has run away with it. Will she ask him, who is even now proud of her, to deposit
it back and await the Supreme Court orders? Or, Will she allow him to defy
the Supreme Court? She will not answer because she cannot. She defended 'Q'
when she was the Opposition Leader.
Now, being the effective ruler and therefore
she can, she protects him. It needs no seer to say that she is inseverable
from 'Q' and from all that he has done and is doing. There are two accomplices
to this huge fraud on India by the UPA government - Manmohan Singh and the
Communists.
Writer's email: comment@gurumurthy.net
