NDA should have taken up the matter during its rule: Cong

Hitting out at the BJP for trying to "politicise" the Ouattrocchi issue, Congress today said the saffron party-led NDA should have taken up the matter during its rule.      

Taking a dig at the saffron party, which termed the CBI's move as an attempt by the Congress to save "personal family friend of Gandhi family," senior party leader M Veerappa Moily said if there was any proof against the businessman, the NDA should have taken up the matter during its rule.      

"We have nothing to do with Quattrocchi. The Bofors case has been in the public for over two decades. If there was any proof of his involvement in the scam, the NDA which ruled the country for seven years should have taken some steps," Moily told PTI.      

The controversy erupted when the CBI asked the Interpol to take off Quattrocchi, accused in the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoff scam, from its Red Corner notice list.      

Moily said Congress has never interfered in the affairs of the CBI or any other agency and will never do so in the future too.      

"If we wanted to shut the case, then we could have done it when we were in power. The case took its legal course. Now, since he has been acquitted by the court, it would have been illegal to keep a notice pending against him unless there is a case," Moily said.

Terming the Bofors scam as "Agni Pariksha" for the party, Moily said, "our former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's name was dragged into the case even though we all know that he was Mr Clean. It is the vested interests of the opposition to raise Bofors issue whenever elections are there."      

He said the Congress has always believed that all cases should take its own legal course and if there was any proof against anyone, the person should be prosecuted.     

"But once everything has been settled by the courts, then why politicise the issue?" he asked.