CBI team arrives to seek extradition of Quattrocchi

A Central Bureau of Investigation team flew in to Buenos Aires on Thursday from New Delhi to seek extradition of Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi whose lawyer said that India had no case to get the Italian businessman.

CBI Director of Prosecution S K Sharma and Superintendent of Police Keshav Mishra came with a set of voluminous documents, which will be presented to the Argentinian foreign office in support of India's request to extradite 69-year-old Quattrocchi detained in this country on February 6 on the basis of an Interpol alert.

Quattrocchi, who left India in 1993 and has been sought ever since by the Indian courts and CBI, was released on bail on February 23 but his passport has been impounded and has been prohibited from leaving this country.

India's Ambassador to Argentina Parmathesh Rath said that the legal department in the foreign office would first verify whether CBI had followed the correct procedure in preparing the extradition papers. Thereafter, the papers would be forwarded to a court.