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Did someone say it is “election season”?

by · April 28, 2009

Connect the dots.

…The Interpol has removed the red-corner notice issued against Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who is being sought in India  for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal…The 12-year-long Interpol red corner notice…has been withdrawn by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

This comes just three weeks before the Congress-led UPA government’s term ends. [ News dt 28th Apr ’09 ]

Next,

…The Supreme Court on Monday (27th) asked the Special Investigation Team to probe a complaint against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi that he and his Cabinet colleagues orchestrated the post-Godhra communal riots in 2002 in connivance with police officials and senior bureaucrats. [ link ]

…and finally,

…New Delhi on Monday (27th Apr) announced Rs 100 crore grant as humanitarian aid for the Tamil evacuees.

…“I am happy to announce that the Prime Minister has approved a grant of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for providing humanitarian relief assistance to innocent civilians who have been evacuated from the conflict zone,” (Sh Pranab Mukherjee) said…

The ruling Congress claimed that Colombo’s decision was prompted by international opinion and consistent effort by the Indian Government. [ link ]

Related Post: With one eye firmly on polls… 

Somewhat related posts: On Narendra Modi and being a Hindu 

A real shame: The fall and fall of Shri Manmohan Singh 

How a tea-stall survey trumped exit polls…(and more)

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B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

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12 Responses

  1. blogger says:
    April 28, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    Please read “Congress Bureau of Investigation lets off Quattrocchi”.

    This is the most despicable and condemnable misuse of power and a constitutional body like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for personal vendetta and advantage by Congress Government.

    “The Government has assaulted and weakened every constitutional office: the Election Commission, Governors and Parliament.”

    – Outlook, March 2 2009

  2. borneveryday says:
    April 28, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    Oh yeah there is a bonus as well, If proved that Kasab is a minor, then he faces just three years in jail.

  3. B Shantanu says:
    April 28, 2009 at 7:23 pm

    More skeltons in the cupboard? emphasis added:

    …New Delhi: In January 2006, CNN-IBN reported that additional solicitor general of India B Dutta had told British authorities to defreeze two London bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrochi, the main accused in the Bofors scandal.

    These bank accounts allegedly contained money received as kickbacks from the multi-crore deal.

    The accounts were frozen on request from CBI.

    Last month, through an RTI application, CNN-IBN found India’s Law and Justice Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj may have made the defreezing request himself.

    But in further reply to the RTI filed by activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya, the Law Ministry says that passport of their Minister is “not available” with them.

    “It clearly proves that Bharadwaj’s ministry is trying to hide something controversial,” says RTI activist, Dev Ashish Bhattacharya.

    In November 2007, in an RTI filed by Bhattacharya, the Law Ministry said that while returning from the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Ghana, Bharadwaj “visited London to have discussions with counsels and solicitors engaged by the Government of India to represent or defend Union of India in various cases pending in London.”

    But three months later, in a reply filed to an RTI query on specifics of the 2005 London visit from CNN-IBN, the Ministry did a U-turn.

    Bharadwaj never visited London in 2005, said the reply, because “he had to pre-pone his return to India.”

    This despite giving exact details on the money spent in Britain on tour making the suspicions of a cover-up real.

  4. B Shantanu says:
    April 29, 2009 at 11:23 am

    More on Quattrocchi:

    Former CBI director Joginder Singh on Tuesday claimed that the agency had proof that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi had allegedly received $7.32 million as kickbacks in Rs 64 crore Bofors scam.

    “There are documents with the CBI showing that Quattrocchi received $7.32 million. The documents have been given by the Swiss authorities themselves,” the former CBI director, who brought the documents from Switzerland, said in Delhi.

    He claimed that the documents were with the government and the CBI and also part of records in Delhi High Court.

  5. kc says:
    April 29, 2009 at 7:06 pm

    White house releases President’s photo stream under creative commons

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/

    when do we get to see our leader’s lives like this?

  6. Hemant says:
    April 30, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    How about this?

    In an unusual order, the government has allowed an armed personal security officer (PSO) of Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla to accompany him on all domestic flights.

  7. Indian says:
    May 1, 2009 at 7:06 am

    N. Modi Rightly said; ‘Gujarat ke bete ko jail, Italy ke bhai ko bail’.

  8. blogger says:
    May 1, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    *** Comment moved here ***

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    Thanks.

  9. B Shantanu says:
    May 2, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    Apparently these issues has nothing to do with elections!

    Pl. also read Dharma of Investigation.

  10. blogger says:
    May 3, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    And you know it’s election season when Lalu rants his filthy diatribes. Oh wait, he and his better (or worse) side does that anyways.

    Please watch his “hate talk” about Mr. Narendra Modi during a press conference: Lalu’s hate talk on Narendra Modi

    Election Commission and Media is as usual…. mum!

  11. B Shantanu says:
    May 3, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Thanks for the link blogger…Does anyone know if EC is taking any action on this?

  12. B Shantanu says:
    May 8, 2009 at 5:26 am

    Excerpts from Shy Rao, shameless Singh by S Gurumurthy (emphasis mine)

    …“It’s not a good reflection on the Indian legal system,” says the PM moved by compassion for Q, “that we harass people while the world says we have no case.” Singh, who was with the South Commission on a comfortable salary and perks when the Bofors scam rocked the country, seems totally unaware of the facts of the Bofors scam. Here is a short trailer of the scam.

    The Bofors scam — pay-off for India’s gun purchase deal with Sweden — broke out in 1987. A third of the Indians living today were not yet born then; and a fourth of the Indians living then are no more alive today. So some history needs to be recalled here.

    …Including the payoff of $36.5 million to Q, the Bofors deal contemplated three streams of payoff totalling $250 million.

    …The media found that some $7.3 million from Bofors AB had found its way into Q’s secret bank accounts. Facts began to tumble out testifying that it was fee to Q for swinging the $1.2 billion gun deal for the Swedish gun maker.

    Here is how Q got the deal for Bofors.

    The Rajiv Gandhi government could not decide for a long time what gun to buy — the British, Austrian or Swedish. The two brokers engaged by Bofors could not expedite the deal. Suddenly, in the second half of 1985, AE Services (AES), a shell company, entered the deal…

    …AES shell did get the Rajiv government to sign the contract with Bofors on March 22, 1986 — seven days ahead of the target date of March 31, 1986. Within six months, AES got the first tranche of its fee of $7.3 million. Proof emerged slowly that this money finally went to Q, showing he was the man behind the shell.

    â–  Bofors remitted on September 3, 1986, $7.3 million into AES account number 18051-53 in Nordfinanz Bank, Zurich.
    This equalled 20 per cent of the three per cent bribe of $36.5 millions due to AES.

    ■ Two weeks later (on September 16, 1986) AES delivered $7 million into account number 254.561.60W in the same bank in the name of Colbar Investments — a company controlled by Q and Maria.

    â–  In April 1987, the Swedish Radio broke the news of bribes in Bofors deal with India.
    ….
    ■ Forthwith Q and Maria hurriedly shifted their loot, grown with interest, from Geneva to Channel Islands, to New York to Austria. First, on July 25, 1988 $7.9 million moved from Colbar to account number 488.320.60X of Wetelsen Overseas SA, in UBS, Geneva. Next, on May 21, 1990, $9.2 million moved from Wetelson to account number 123983 of IIDCL, Ansbacher, St Peter Port, Guernsey (Channel Islands). Later, on June 5, 1990, $2.4 million channelled into code-named account ‘Robusta’ in Banque Karfinco SA from Swiss Bank Corp, New York. Afterwards, on June 12, 1990, $5.3 million was transferred to code-named accounts ‘Arabica’, ‘Robusta’ and ‘Luxor’ in Austria from Swiss Bank accounts in Geneva.
    â–  Within six days of the Swiss government giving these details to India in 1993, Q slipped out of India and turned a fugitive
    …
    â–  Later, in June 2003, Interpol found that Q and Maria had two accounts, bearing numbers 5A5151516L and 5A5151516M in the London branch of the Swiss bank BSI AG with Euros three million and $1 million.
    They were frozen on CBI’s request.
    â–  But, on December 22, 2005, the Congressled UPA government U-turned. H R Bharadwaj, the law minister, got the additional solicitor general of India, B Dutta, to go to London to do the dirty job of releasing the amounts.