NEW DELHI, March 30: The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a petition filed by Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi -- an accused in the Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-offs case -- seeking quashing of an alert notice and non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by a city court.A division bench comprising Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice N G Nandi issued notices to CBI on March 25 following the filing of a petition by Quattrocchi through his counsel Dinesh Mathur. The notices are returnable on April 15.
Mathur submitted that the CBI had obtained the arrest warrant against Quattrocchi without specifying provisions of law and nature of offence. He said that the CBI had not summoned Quattrocchi and so the issuance of alert notice and arrest warrant violated his client's fundamental rights, especially as he was not getting a visa to visit certain countries.
However, standing CBI counsel R S Jamuar said the arrest warrant was an interlocutory order andthis could not be challenged in the court as Quattrocchi was required for interrogation. Jamuar said that the CBI had registered the case on January 21, 1990 and the warrant was issued after a gap of seven years.
Mathur further said that the agency had scrutinised the secret Swiss bank papers brought from Berne in last January and then named five persons owning secret accounts, into which the Bofors money was allegedly remitted.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
