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| Sonia Gandhi is embarrased by Opposition | | Parliament in uproar over bribery scam | | NEW DELHI, FEB 26
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were thrown into disorder on Monday. This followed revelations that Ministers failed to act quickly to extradite a businessman with links to ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, wanted for a bribery scam.
Reports said that the Indian government was informed of Italian businessman, Octavio Quattrocchi's detention in Argentina, under an Interpol warrant issued by India, on February 8. The Opposition charged that the government then failed for two weeks to comment or act on the detention, which lasts 30 days unless extradition is sought.
Quattrocchi, believed to be close to the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, is wanted in India for allegedly taking bribes to swing a 1.3 billion dollar arms deal in favour of Sweden's Bofors in the mid-1980s. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members shouted down attempts to hold legislative business, including the annual budget speech for state-owned Indian Railways, demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement on the issue.
"We demand that the Prime Minister make a statement in the House on why the government kept hidden the fact that Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained on February 6", BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters outside Parliament. Earlier, BJP leaders vowed to block proceedings "from the word go" if the government did not explain why Quattrocchi's detention was disclosed only two weeks later.
The government said at the weekend that it would send a team of central law enforcement agents to seek extradition, a potentially lengthy process as the two nations do not have an extradition treaty. Quattrocchi has always maintained his innocence, saying his only crime was being a friend of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.
In 2005, the Delhi High Court dismissed similar charges against the three Europe-based Hinduja brothers - of the family-run Hinduja Group multinational - as well as against the late Rajiv Gandhi. The scandal has dogged Indian politics since it erupted in 1986.
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