Buenos Aires: The Argentinean Foreign Office was processing 250 pages of documents presented by the Indian government for the extradition of Bofors accused
Ottavio Quattrocchi on Friday.
"We don't expect it to take long. But there is nothing hard and fast about these matters", Indian Amabssador to Argentina Pramathesh Rath said when asked how long the Foreign
Office would take to scrutinise the papers submitted on Thursday.
He said a lawyer would be chosen from the panel of counsels formed by Indian Embassy in addition to the lawyer given by the Argentinian government to take up the CBI case.
Asked about reports that the prosecutor named by the Argentinean government to handle the Indian case in the court was not interested, the Ambassador said the Argentinian government has named him and he has to be briefed.
The 69-year-old Italian businessman was detained in Misiones Province of Argentina on February six on the basis of an Interpol alert.
He was released on bail on February 23 but his passport has been impounded and he has been prohibited from leaving the country.
On Thursday, after the CBI team, comprising its Director of Prosecution S K Sharma and Superintendent of Police Keshav Mishra, arrived here, the Ambassador formally submitted the documents to the Foreign Office for the extradition.
After filing the papers, Rath, said it was now for the Argentinean Government to see whether they were in order to carry forward the process of extradition.
"We will see, we have to follow up within the framework of Argentina. We will do whatever is possible," he said.
The Ambassador said there should be reciprocity between the two countries.
Sharma said they would hire the best lawyers for the job and were very confident of getting Quattrocchi to India.
"We will proceed according to the law. We are very much hopeful," he said.
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