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The Italian Connection

Quattrocchi's name in the Bofors papers, to be handed over to the CBI this week, will seriously embarrass Sonia

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The Italian Connection
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TEN years is a long wait. Maybe that is why the excitement over handing over the Bofors papers on January 21 has been rather muted. No one is quite sure what the  papers will contain or, more importantly, who they will name as the recipients of the kickbacks in the infamous gun deal signed over a decade ago. But the one question which is on everybody's mind is: what will be the implications for Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia?

Nearly six years after the death of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia continues to enjoy a position of pre-eminence in the Congress. But she is not without detractors in the party. Former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had to give up both his party presidentship and the leadership of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the last few months, is known to have no love lost for the lady at 10, Janpath. And the party's new leader in the Lok Sabha, Sharad Pawar, too, is reported to be wary of her continued clout.

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Given this scenario, the Bofors papers cannot but hurt Sonia if, as is widely expected, they name Ottavio Quattrocchi as holding one of the Swiss bank accounts in which a chunk of the Bofors kickback money was deposited. Sonia's detractors are bound to raise insinuations of her connection with Quattrocchi to weaken her clout. However, no sense of trepidation has yet been reported from 10, Janpath. It is argued that the link between Sonia and Quattrocchi was at best tenuous and that the Gandhis entertained the Italian businessman and his wife as they were from Sonia's home country. Says AICC functionary Viswajeet Singh: "Quattrocchi's involvement is not going to affect Sonia one bit. If two people share the same nationality it does not necessarily mean that one is responsible for the crime of the other." However, in media and political circles, it is widely believed that Quattrocchi was a close family friend of the Gandhis and was a conduit for their kickbacks.

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And the scandal which brought about Rajiv Gandhi's downfall is far from over. Strangely enough, almost all political parties are maintaining a studied silence even as the much-awaited Bofors documents are being brought to India. Says CPI leader M. Farooqi: "Let the papers come in. Only after that we will be in a position to say anything." But murmurs—if not loud rumblings—can be heard even within the Congress. The Rao camp and Pawar loyalists will be more than happy to see Sonia in trouble. "Though Bofors is a dead issue now, if the papers have Quattrocchi's name then it can create some problems for Sonia Gandhi," notes a Rao loyalist.

On the face of it there is a Sitaram Kesri protective cover around Sonia. The new Congress chief has spared no effort to showcase his loyalty to Sonia. And since the United Front Government depends on Congress support, Prime Minister H.D.Deve Gowda may be wary of training his guns on Rajiv's widow. But then Kesri has shown himself to be an ambitious man. After all, he was a Rao loyalist till not too long back. But once Rao came under a shadow, he played a leading role in turning the screws against him. It remains to be seen how he will respond if he sees the barrel of the famous "shoot and scoot" gun trained on Sonia. In fact, he could just use the papers to nullify Sonia's clout in the party.

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As for Quattrocchi's links with the Gandhis, they came to light a decade ago when the Italian firm Snam Progetti bagged the plum HBJ pipeline contract. Quattrocchi's name figured in the controversy after portions of the Bofors chief executive Martin Ardbo's diary were published. It was alleged that he had received kickbacks on behalf of Rajiv Gandhi. Ardbo had jotted in his diary that he was worried about "Mr Q" and his links to "RG". But despite warnings that Quattrocchi might leave the country and demands for his arrest, the Rao government allowed him to flee in July 1993.

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The Italian businessman's links to the Gandhi family were further proved when hawala scamster S.K. Jain was interrogated by the CBI in 1995. Jain said he met Quattrocchi at Rajiv Gandhi's residence and that Quattrocchi acted as a middleman between the former prime minister and two foreign firms—the French Ceglec Alsthom and the Swedish Scnca—which were interested in two mega power projects at Uri and Dulhasti. Quattrocchi later issued a statement from Singapore denying his links with Jain. But since then his whereabouts are not known—or at least that is what the Government claims. But of late he is rumoured to be in Milan, Italy.

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It is after a prolonged legal battle by the alleged benificiaries of the Bofors deal—Gopichand P. Hinduja, Prakash Hinduja, Srichand Hinduja, Washeshar Nath (Win) Chadha and Quattrocchi—that the Swiss court finally decided in December '96 to hand over the details of the six bank accounts in the Rs 65-crore scandal to India. Although the Swiss authorities have revealed that Quattrocchi, Chadha and the Hindujas had been resisting the transfer of bank documents to Indian authorities, it is still not clear whether they are actual account holders or were acting on behalf of "some other recipients". But it is assumed that the appellants have accounts in their names because that alone would justify their interest in blocking the release of the papers.

On their part, the appellants have denied links to the payments. They pleaded in the Swiss federal court that they played a limited role as a third party. Which could mean that the money they received was meant for others. But the federal court did not accept the argument and ruled against them.

Though the papers will be handed over to Special Judge Ajit Bharioke, who will release the papers to the CBI, they may not be made public in the immediate future. The CBI itself is apprehensive of getting to the bottom of the case. One view is that in case the documents do not have the names of any Indian public servant, it will be dif-ficult to proceed against the account holders under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "If AB Bofors gives money to any person who is not a public servant, it is no offence", says a CBI official. Going by this, no case can be made against Win Chadha, the former agent of AB Bofors in India, the Hinduja brothers and Quattro-cchi because none of them is a public servant. (While the details of payments allegedly made are not clear in the case of the others, Win Chadha received a major portion of the payment in the account of Svenska Incorporated with the Swiss Bank Corporation in Geneva. Around $30 million has been traced to his account.)

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CBI Director Joginder Singh voiced his misgivings in a meeting with his colleagues. According to sources, the officials analysing the case expressed doubts that the mere handing over of the bank papers would bring the curtain down on the Bofors scandal. There is a possibility that the documents will indicate that part of the payments were made in some banks outside Switzerland; in that case the whole process of issuing Letters Rogatory will have to be started afresh.

The Bofors saga started on April 16, 1987, when the Swedish radio broadcast news that huge kickbacks were given to Indian politicians. This was promptly denied by India but a Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter followed up the story on April 22. But the Rajiv Gandhi government did not initiate an inquiry till February 1989 on one pretext or the other. This led to the Opposition raising allegations that the case was not being investigated to protect Rajiv Gandhi and others close to him.

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The V.P. Singh government finally ordered the CBI to register an FIR in January 1990, in which 14 persons were named. A request was also made to the Swiss government to freeze the Bofors accounts. At least six accounts were frozen on January 24, 1990, following a request by the government to trace the recipients of the pay-off.

But efforts to thwart the probe continued at various levels. In February 1992, the then foreign minister Madhav Singh Solanki gave a note to a Swiss minister, urging him to go easy on the case. When the press got wind of the plan, Solanki had to resign.

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It still remains to be seen if the Bofors papers will finally help nail the guilty. Though every effort will be made to keep the papers under wraps, it is likely that sensitive information will be leaked to the media. That is when the Opposition is bound to step in. And if Quattrocchi figures, the victim will be Sonia Gandhi, not the Congress.

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