No one can go to jail till CBI is made independent: Arvind Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday expressed his concern over the number of pending CBI cases which are closed due to the death of the main accused.

"In the last 50 years, the CBI was able to nab only three people- Nar Bahadur Singh Bhandari, Bangaru Laxman and Sukhram. CBI keeps delaying the cases against the accused, the accused dies and the case is closed," he said.

He further said that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's death in Milan from a heart attack was another example of where the CBI has failed to unearth the truth in connection with the Rs.64 crore Bofors kickback scam.

"The aim of the CBI was to put corrupt bureaucrats in jail. But the CBI is controlled by corrupt people. No one can go to jail till the CBI is made an independent body, because I feel it's a deliberate attempt to hide the truth," he added.

Quattrocchi,74, died on Saturday in Milan, Italy.

Quattrocchi allegedly acted as a conduit in the scam which caused heavy damage to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who lost the 1989 elections. The Italian businessman left the country in 1993 to avoid being arrested.

The case was closed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2011 with no person ever being convicted of in the scam.

The Bofors scam relates to a March 1986 deal between the Indian Government and Swedish arms company Bofors for the supply of 410 155mm Howitzer field guns worth about 285 to 286 million dollars.