Bangalore, Jan 3 (IANS) Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily Monday lashed out at senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley for trying to link Italian businessman Ottavio Quattorcchi to the Congress or its leaders.
Reacting to Jaitley’s comments on the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order that Quattrocchi and his partner Win Chadha had received a commission in the gun deal, Moily told reporters here that ‘his (Quattrocchi’s) direct linkage to Congress party or its leader is totally baseless and unjustified’.
Jaitley’s version (of the Tribunal order) ‘has to be taken with a pinch of salt,’ he added.
The minister said the tribunal order would be studied by the government.
The tribunal said the two had received a commission of over Rs.412 million in the Rs.15 billion howitzer gun deal in 1987.
Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi that the tribunal order was ‘discovery of truth by default’ and hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of corruption.
