The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate LK Advani today slammed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the issue of removing the name of Bofors payoff scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi from the Red Corner Notice list and termed this move as the last nail in the coffin of judicial process in respect of the Bofors scandal.
“The decision to drop the name of the main accused in Bofors scandal from the CBI’s wanted list hints that the Congress party thinks that it will not come back to power after the elections,” Advani said while condemning the move at a press conference today in Ahmedabad. Hitting out at the Congress party and its president Sonia Gandhi on the last day of campaigning in Gujarat, Advani accused the Congress of misusing government institutions, especially the CBI. “Over the past five years, the CBI has been misused for political purposes,” he added.
“Quattrocchi was considered close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and was allowed to flee from India when Narasimha Rao government was in power,” he said, adding, “during the UPA regime, Quattrocchi’s bank accounts were allowed to be defreezed and later he was allowed to go scot-free after having been arrested in Argentina”.
“I hold Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi directly responsible for colluding in this conspiracy to bury the truth about Bofors,” Advani said.
When asked about the Supreme Court ordering a probe into the role played by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during the 2002 Godhra riots, he said it was just a probe and we would abide by the order of the apex court.
“It is not a setback. The Supreme Court has directed the agency to look into it,” Advani told reporters, when asked if he saw it as a setback on the eve of the third phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, Advani sought to turn the table on the UPA government in connection with another Supreme Court case and said that when it came to the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) IMDT Act, the Apex court had criticised the Union government in strongest possible terms.