SC adjourns 'Q' case by four weeks

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Friday, adjourned the hearing on a PIL seeking extradition of Bofors payoff accused Ottavio Quattrocchi to India for four weeks.

A Bench of Justice C K Thakkar and V S Sirpurkar adjourned the matter after Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam informed that an Argentine court would decide on India's request for extraditing Quattrocchi on March 23.

The bench also pointed out that the CBI and the Government have not committed any contempt of court as both the Union Government as well as the CBI have highest regard for this court.

CBI Director Vijay Shanker and DIG Harbhajan Ram are facing contempt charge in the Supreme Court for allegedly misleading the court over the extradition proceedings against Ottavio Quattrocchi.

Advocate Ajay K Agrawal filed a fresh petition in the top court on Thursday evening for initiating contempt proceedings against the two.

The petitioner has submitted that the agency had filed false affidavits in the court on the issue despite being in the know of Quattrocchi's arrest and his subsequent release on bail by an Argentine court.

Agrawal, in his contempt petition, submitted that the CBI had committed contempt of the court by deliberately witholding the information of Quattrocchi's detention in Argentina, on February 6 on the basis of a "Red Corner Notice" issued by Interpol.

It was alleged that the details of Quattrocchi's arrest on February 6 and his subsequent release on bail on February 23 were in the knowledge of the CBI, but the agency willfully chose to conceal the same from the apex court when the matter pertaining to the defreezing of accounts and his extradition came up for hearing on February 12.

The petition also accused the CBI of deliberately witholding from the court on February 26 information about the release of Quattrocchi on February 23 by the Argentinian authorities.

Had the CBI informed the court about the release, it would had enabled the apex court to pass appropriate orders on the extradition, the petitioner submitted. Hence, it urged the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the CBI Director and the DIG “so that it acts as a deterrent against others from misleading the court.”

(With agency inputs)