NDA petitions President on Quattrocchi issue

Mounting its offensive on the Bofors issue, NDA on Friday sought President APJ Abdul Kalam's intervention to ensure that Law Minister HR Bhardwaj was dismissed.

They also demanded that the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson make a full statement on their role in the "defreezing" of Italian Businessman Otavio Quattrocchi's two British accounts.

A high-level delegation of the alliance including Leader of Opposition LK Advani and Convener George Fernandes met the President and drew his attention to the "gross and scandalous abuse of power and of democratic institutions by the UPA Government and the Congress party in particular to help and Italian fugitive in the Bofors bribery case."

"It is a case of subversion of institutions by sweeping the scandal under the carpet to save the culprits," Advani told reporters here after the 30-minute long meeting with the President.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, senior party leaders leaders Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, SS Ahluwalia and Santosh Gangwar besides BK Tripathy (BJD) and SS Dhindsa (SAD) were part of the delegation.