Quattrocchi

Buenos Aires, March 2 (Agencies): India has formally requested Argentina to extradite Ottavio Quattrocchi.

“We have submitted our documentation,” S.K. Sharma, CBI’s director of prosecution, said outside Argentina’s foreign ministry on Thursday (early Friday morning in India).

The Italian businessman, an accused in the Rs 64-crore Bofors kickbacks case, was detained in Argentina on February 6 under a 1997 Interpol warrant. A court released him on bail last week, but barred him from leaving the country.

The Indian ambassador, Pramathesh Rath, said it was now for Argentina to see if the papers were in order to carry forward the process of extradition. “We will see, we have to follow up within the framework of Argentina. We will do whatever is possible,” he said.

The Argentinian foreign office was today processing the 250 pages of documents. “We don’t expect it to take long. But there is nothing hard and fast about these matters,” Rath said.

The ambassador had taken the documents, brought from India by Sharma and CBI superintendent of police Keshav Mishra, to the foreign office.

Quattrocchi is accused of taking over $7 million (Rs 31.5 crore at current rates) in bribes as a middleman in the $1.2-billion purchase of 400 artillery guns from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army.

Paying or receiving commissions on arms sales is illegal in India.

Quattrocchi, 68, has denied any wrongdoing, and India failed in its efforts to have him extradited from Malaysia five years ago. The businessman has lived in Malaysia since leaving India in 1993.

If Argentina approves the extradition request, the process could last up to two years if Quattrocchi appeals to the Supreme Court, legal expert Gregorio Badeni said.

Indian officials will have to show that Quattrocchi faces charges that are compatible with Argentine law and that the statute of limitations would not be violated, he said.