NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said the Government made no sincere effort to implement the January 16 Supreme Court directive that status quo be maintained on the two London bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman accused in the Bofors payoffs case.

Party leader Arun Jaitley pointed out that within hours of the court's order that efforts be made to prevent withdrawals from the unfrozen accounts, the Central Bureau of Investigation said it had no evidence to link the money in these accounts to the Bofors payoffs.

Yet another indication of the Government's mind came from Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's "onslaught on judicial directions" when he stated the court order was not implementable as it had no jurisdiction in London, Mr. Jaitley said. The response of the Government and the CBI was thus "far from making any honest effort to trace the source of Mr. Quattrocchi's funds and get the accounts refrozen." The BJP leader referred to news reports that British authorities did not voluntarily defreeze the accounts and "did so on the Indian request."

"Fictional"

Mr. Jaitley described as "fictional" the opinion of Additional Solicitor-General Kalyan Phatak that there was virtually no case against Mr. Quattrocchi. If there was no case, what happened to the pending charge sheet against him?The BJP alleged that "the Government's strategy is to get an acquittal of Mr. Quattrocchi without trial. A trial would be embarrassing. An acquittal of Mr. Quattrocchi will be a vindication of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi."

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