Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) A city court Saturday deferred its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to withdraw Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s name from the Bofors gun deal payoff case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja deferred the order to Nov 6 on whether the CBI’s application under section 321 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) should be accepted.

The CBI had Oct 3 moved an application before a court here to quash all charges against Quattrocchi in the two-decade-old Bofors payoff case, saying the case cannot be kept pending forever as attempts to extradite him have failed in the past.

“The continued prosecution of Quattrocchi is unjustified in the light of various factors, including the failed attempts to extradite him,” Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra - appearing for the CBI - had said before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Baweja.

The CBI position had been contested by advocate Ajay Agarwal, who demanded that he be treated as a complainant in the case. But Malhotra said: “Petitioner has no locus standi to move the petition.”

The court will now decide on both issues Nov 6.

Meanwhile, Agarwal has also filed a application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) with the CBI, seeking all the file notings and other related information about the case since it began.

“I have filed the RTI application Friday with the CBI and am waiting for the response,” Agarwal told IANS.

In a 1987 broadcast, a Swedish radio station alleged that nearly Rs.64 crore ($13 million) were paid in kickbacks to the Congress party and the Rajiv Gandhi government for the multi-billion dollar Bofors howitzer deal. The scandal shook the nation and Rajiv Gandhi lost his two-thirds majority in parliament in the post-Bofors election two years later.