"Mr Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria Quattrocchi were very close to Mr Rajiv Gandhi and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. When Shri Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister, Mr Quattrocchi and his family members used to visit the Prime Minister House and the family members of Shri Rajiv Gandhi also used to visit the house of Mr Quattrocchi."

"In the initial period of prime ministership of Shri Rajiv Gandhi, his children used to stay at Mr Quattrocchi's house during the foreign visits and domestic visits of the prime minister. We used to perform our shift duties at the residence of Mr Quattrocchi on such occasions. Sometimes, Mrs Sonia Gandhi has also stayed in the house of Mr Quattrocchi and at that time we used to perform our duties there."

Ottavio Quattrocchi Ottavio Quattrocchi

These sensational revelations, dug out by INDIA TODAY, are part of the court records in the infamous Bofors kickback case. These statements were recorded by the CBI in 1997 and have been gathering dust since then. As part of its investigations, the CBI had recorded evidence from an SPG official and several drivers, including Sasi Dharan who was working at Snamprogetti, where Quattrocchi worked as a general manager.

Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi

SPG official Naresh Chandra Gosain testified before CBI inspector Ghan Shyam Rai on March 29, 1997. Gosain was an Intelligence Bureau officer. Between 1984 and 1987, he was posted in the SPG team provided to Rajiv Gandhi and was part of his escort team. Between 1987 and 1989, Gosain served as the personal security officer of Sonia.

During H.D. Deve Gowda's prime ministership in 1997, Gosain deposed before the CBI, and in the course of his testimony, spoke at length about the close family ties between the Gandhis and the Quattrocchis.

On January 4, when the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal's judgment shed light on the kickbacks received by Quattrocchi, the Congress quickly went into denial mode and tried to distance the Gandhi family from the Italian businessman. Senior party leaders, in fact, worked overtime to play down the relationship between the Gandhis and Quattrocchi. Law Minister Veerappa Moily said, "His (Quattrocchi) direct linkage to the Congress party or its leader is totally baseless and unjustified." But these testimonies speak of the easy access Quattrocchi and his wife Maria had to the Gandhis, including Sonia's mother Paola Maino and sister Marouchka, who often frequented the Italian couple's home in New Delhi. Quattrocchi's proximity, some would say, is well-known. What is not known, however, is that this proximity continued even after he began to be linked to the Bofors scandal.

Dharan's testimony is crucial in unravelling this mystery. He worked as a driver in Snamprogetti, an Italian public sector giant that was represented in India by Quattrocchi. Dharan was Quattrocchi's personal driver. He drove a Mercedes (DIA 6253).

In his testimony, Dharan details the frequent meetings between the Gandhis and the Quattrocchis. "Shri Quattrocchi and Mrs Maria Quattrocchi were very close to Shri Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and his family. I do not know what type of relation they had, but Quattrocchi and Maria used to frequently visit the house of Rajiv and Sonia. I knew it since 1985 when I joined service. At that time, they used to visit Rajiv's Gandhi's house twice or thrice a day... Whenever Sonia's mother or father visited India, I used to drive them to the house of Quattrocchi. They used to remain there for the whole day and Mrs Maria Quattrocchi would take them for shopping. They used to come to India four or five times in the year," says Dharan in his testimony to the CBI.

Equally important is the car log maintained by Dharan, where he details the exact dates when Quattrocchi came to meet Rajiv and Sonia at 5 and 7 Race Course Road or 10 Janpath. These logs are for the period 1989 to 1993. Dharan has mentioned 41 occasions when Quattrocchi came to meet the Gandhis. The meetings between Quattrocchi and Sonia continued even after Rajiv's death in 1991. According to Dharan, Quattrocchi came to 10 Janpath 21 times after May 1991.

By January 25, 1990, a team of CBI officials was already in Switzerland with a list of suspected recipients of the Bofors payback. Between 1988 and 1990, the media was full of allegations about the involvement of Quattrocchi as a middleman in the Bofors deal.

The concluding paragraph in Dharan's testimony is a telling comment on how the Italian businessman left the country in a hurry: "Mr Quattrocchi used to be a secretive man. He never used to speak much to others about himself. Whenever some news report came up about the case, Quattrocchi used to be very upset; he would not be his normal self. His mood would be bad? Shri Quattrocchi left India on the night of July 29, 1993, and on this day also, I had driven him to the airport. At that time he did not have any luggage except one briefcase and he told me he was going for an urgent meeting. Usually, whenever Mr Quattrocchi wanted the car he would tell me in advance but the day he left, he did not tell me in advance."

When contacted, Joginder Singh, who was the CBI director in 1997 when the testimonies were recorded, confirmed to INDIA TODAY that the statements had indeed been taken and that they were a part of court records. He said, "The testimonies do not prove any guilt but they do show the kind of influence Quattrocchi enjoyed."

Both Gosain and Dharan would have been called to court as witnesses if the CBI had managed to extradite Quattrocchi and bring him to India for a trial. But by themselves, the testimonies bear witness to the fact the Congress clearly has some more explaining to do before it can bury the ghost of Bofors.