New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, wanted in the Bofors pay-off scam, has left Buenos Aires for Milan, five days after India reportedly withdrew its appeal against an Argentine court's rejection of its extradition petition.

India had earlier appealed in the Argentine supreme court against the June 8 decision of a court in Iguazu, Argentina, which had rejected the application of India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to extradite Quattrocchi.

Quattrocchi, 69, reportedly boarded his flight after the Argentine authorities returned his passport. He was allowed to leave Argentina after fighting a six-month legal battle.

The CBI reportedly failed to produce the arrest warrant issued against him by a Delhi court in 1997. On the basis of this warrant, Quattrocchi had been detained at Iguazu airport on Feb 6, while in transit to Buenos Aires.

CBI continues to allege that Quattrocchi took $7 million in bribes as a middleman in the $1.2 billion purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB for the Indian Army in the mid-1980s.

However, he maintains that the Indian authorities have wrongly framed him.

Reacting to some media reports on this issue Wednesday, CBI Director Vijay Shankar told IANS: "I deplore all reports saying that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) created hurdles for us in the matter of the extradition of Quattrocchi. Their job was to facilitate our work and they did it."