New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday sought responses of the government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an application which argued that India has an extradition treaty with Argentina, where Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, was released on bail Monday, nearly three weeks after his arrest there on Feb 6.

Quattrocchi, wanted by CBI for his alleged role as a conduit in the Bofors pay off scam, had been arrested by Argentinian police on a red corner notice by the Indian investigating agncy.

A bench of Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan issued the direction on an application by advocate Ajay Agrawal, who produced documents to substantiate his contention that India has a valid extradition treaty with Argentina.

Agarwal old the bench that Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam hid the fact about Quattrocchi's release on bail Monday, when he approached the court to know what steps the government was taking to have Quattrocchi extradited to India.

Subramaniam, however, said that he would file a formal reply on the issue within a week and the bench granted him the time for the same.

In his application Agarwal contended that the government had been consistently hiding the fact that an extradition treaty exists with Argentina with a motive to conceal its own inefficiencies in handling the case.

He said there was a pre-independence extradition treaty, which was inherited by India as a successor state.

He said late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956 had told Parliament that extradition treaties agreed to by the British government on behalf of India before independence were still in force.

"It clearly depicts that with Argentina there is a treaty existing from May 22, 1889," he added.

He said that in another document titled "International Criminal Police Organisation" issued by Interpol wing of the CBI, it was shown that "we have pre-independence treaties which are still valid according to our law and Argentina figures in the list."

He said "the request for the provisional arrest may be made, if necessary, through the Interpol network. Recourse to the Interpol machinery ensures speedy arrest but in no way does it seek to be a substitute for the more formal diplomatic procedure of extradition."

The application sought immediate directions to the government and the CBI to take expeditious steps for extradition of Quattrocchi from Argentina in terms of the extradition treaty already existing since 1889 between the two countries.