New Delhi, Oct 9 (Inditop.com) A city court Friday reserved its order on the plea of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking withdrawal of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s name from the Bofors gun deal pay off case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja reserved the order for Oct 24 to clear whether CBI’s application under Section 321 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) should be accepted or not.
The CBI had Oct 3 moved an application before a court here to quash all charges against Quattrocchi in the two-decade-old Bofors pay off 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.
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.
