New Delhi: The Centre on Friday assured the Supreme Court that all necessary steps were being taken for the extradition of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the Bofors payoffs case, from Argentina.

Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam informed a Bench of Justices C.K. Thakker and Tarun Chatterjee that a court in Argentina heard the case on March 23 and after the preliminary verification of the details the hearing had been adjourned.

The next hearing would be sometime in May. He said that Mr. Quattrocchi was still in Argentina though on bail. The Argentine Government had assured full cooperation. In view of this, the Bench adjourned the hearing to the third week of July.

In its reply to advocate Ajay Agarwal's petition, the CBI said the Central Government had sought Mr. Quattrocchi's extradition and furnished the documents to Argentine authorities through diplomatic channels on March 1.

Officers in Buenos Aires

Two CBI officers reached Buenos Aires on March 1 in connection with the extradition proceedings. Lilian Delgado has been appointed a Public Prosecutor to represent the Government of India. As per information received from the Indian embassy at Buenos Aires, the extradition request was under the consideration of the government.

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