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No tabling Bofors papers, says Jaswant Singh

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday said the government had not only succeeded in getting from the Swiss authorities the last set of papers relating to the Bofors deal but had also got additional important information from Luxembourg but these would not be revealed to the public.

Jaswant Singh was intervening in the Rajya Sabha in response to the demand by Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), that the government take the House into confidence and reveal the papers.

Singh said the latest papers received from the Swiss authorities would be used only for the purpose it had been received. They cannot be revealed to the public as it would amount to using them for political purposes.

This was the understanding on which the Swiss authorities had handed over the papers and this will not be breached. This was done even when the earlier set of papers was received, he said.

Jaswant Singh denied there was any delay on the government's part in getting the papers from Switzerland. In fact it was because of the initiative of the government that they had got the second and the last set of papers. Besides, it had got additional information from Luxembourg in connection with the case, he said.

In a related development in the Bofors case, former CBI Director Joginder Singh has said that Malaysia-based Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi wants to confess his role in the Bofors payoff case.

''I have come to know that Quattrocchi wants to make full and complete confession. An influential person who is mediating on his behalf approached for help in this regard,'' Singh said in an interview.

Expressing the confidence that India would succeed in getting the extradition of Quattrocchi, against whom the trial court in the case has issued non-bailable arrest warrants, Singh said the CBI was competent enough to extract necessary information on the alleged kickbacks in the 1.4 billion dollar gun deal signed in 1986 with the Swedish arms manufacturer, AB Bofors which has since merged with Celsius.

UNI

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