The court in Argentina dismissed the Indian government's plea to extradite Ottavio Quattrocchi. The court ordered the Indian government to compensate Quattrocchi for legal costs to contest a case without basis. This should cause no surprise. How could any court rely on CBI allegations when the Indian government's law ministry had recorded that there was no case against Quattrocchi? A recent report in The Indian Express recalled how the government's law officers kept CBI officials in the dark while informing Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that Quattrocchi's frozen accounts may be released because there was no case against him. This, while CBI officials were urging on CPS to keep Quattrocchi's accounts frozen! Why our government persists with Quattrocchi's extradition despite this may concern parliament, not foreign governments.
Quattrocchi obviously was supported by powerful forces in India to get his frozen UK accounts released. Did supporters also aid him in Argentina? Quattrocchi's lawyer Alejandro Freeland told a news agency that CBI did not argue its case fully. He said:"CBI brought only half the papers relating to the case." How did he know this? Was Quattrocchi's defence counsel privy to material used by the prosecution? This would not sound far-fetched if Quattrocchi's long reach in India were recognized. Some underplayed aspects of the Jain Hawala case exposed that long reach.
The Jain Hawala case has been rubbished by media. But last fortnight two events authenticated the case. On June 6 the Enforcement Directorate passed an adjudication order on the case finding the Jain brothers and Amir Bhai guilty. A penalty totaling Rs 30 crore was imposed. The connection of the Jain Hawala case to terrorism was authenticated by the second event. Mulchand Shah had brought Jain's hawala funds from Mumbai to Delhi in 1991. He was detained by CBI but released after the Jain diary which listed the names of the leading politicians was seized. He was released to insulate politicians from the TADA terrorism case. Last fortnight Mulchand Shah was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case for distributing arms to the rioters in Mumbai.
What has all this got to do with Quattrocchi? Plenty. Implicated politicians in the Jain Hawala case may have been unaware of the terrorist or hawala angle. Quattrocchi knew everything. The recorded confessional statement of SK Jain to CBI, admitted in the Supreme Court as evidence, now deserves to be read again. It was recorded by CBI officers Amod Kanth, DIG, and MP Singh, SP, on 12 March 1995. The following statements are excerpted from SK Jain's confession.