Bofors case Italian says available for quizzing

Bofors case Italian says available for quizzing
REUTERS

KUALA LUMPUR, MARCH 2: An Italian wanted in connection with an Indian arms scandal on Friday offered himself for questioning by Indian authorities as a Kuala Lumpur court began hearing extradition proceedings against him.

"I'M Willing to be questioned anytime here," OttavioQuattrocchi, a seven-year resident in Malaysia, told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court after a hearing on whether India had a right to have him extradited.

"I've offered myself so many Times to be questioned but theIndian CBI (Central Bureau of Investigations) never approached me," he said. "Now they want to extradite me."

Quattrocchi was named as one of five people alleged to havereceived illegal commissions in India's $1.2 billion purchase of Bofors' howitzers in the 1980s.

The scandal, which erupted in 1986, rocked India's thenruling Congress party and contributed to the fall of the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Quattrocchi, in Malaysia since 1993, has denied anywrongdoing, though he has said he was close to the Gandhi family during the 27 years he spent in India.

The Italian says there is no proper charge for his arrestand that the motive to extradite him is political.

His lawyers hope to convince the Kuala Lumpur High Court toquash the extradition bid before it can be heard by the lower Sessions Court on April 3.

High Court Judge K.C. Vohrah ruled at Friday's hearing theSessions Court will have to abide by his decision.

"This means he can make a direct order to the SessionsJudge to stay the extradition proceedings if he decides we have a case," Quattrochi's lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told Reuters.

The hearing was adjourned to Thursday, March 8.

India and Malaysia do not have extradition ties, but policeofficials said Quattrocchi could still be sent to India if the two governments cooperated.

Last Monday, an Indian High Court reserved a decision on anappeal by three billionaire Hinduja brothers, charged in connection with the Bofors case, to leave the country.

The three Indian-born brothers, Srichand, Gopichand andPrakash, filed the appeal after a lower court refused to let them leave the country on the grounds that they might not return for questioning by federal investigators.