No deal with Congress on Bofors, says Jaitley

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said successive Congress-led governments and those supported by that party tried to kill the 25 year-old Bofors case.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said successive Congress-led governments and those supported by that party tried to kill the 25 year-old Bofors case.

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Jaitley termed as "complete rubbish" the allegations that there was a deal between the Congress and the BJP on not questioning certain political leaders for their alleged role in the scam.

"I have no sense of guilt (on Bofors investigations) but have one regret that (though) the NDA did what it could, it is the Congress which tried to kill the case," Jaitley said in an interview to Karan Thapar's 'Devil's Advocate' programme.

"You had long tenures of Congress or Congress-led governments, which tried to kill the case," the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha said.

Jaitley said during the NDA regime from 1998 to 2004, the Bofors case was taken to its "logical conclusion" and the CBI, which was probing it, acted independently of the government.

Jaitley alleged that it was the Congress government, which came to power in 2004, that asked the CBI not to file an appeal in the Bofors case though all documents in this regard had been prepared by the NDA government before it lost the general elections.

Asked why Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was never questioned even during the NDA rule despite the fact that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was close to the Gandhi family, Jaitley said: "Though she has a lot of explaining to do, it is for the CBI to decide whether to question her."

On allegations that there was an understanding between the Congress and the BJP that Sonia Gandhi would not be questioned on the Bofors issue, he said, "This is a figment of your imagination. It has no truth and no connection with reality."