New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) A local court Thursday reserved its order till Feb 21 on a CBI plea seeking to close all criminal cases against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of the alleged recipients of kickbacks in the Bofors gun deal.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Vinod Yadav after hearing the arguments on Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) application reserved the order till Feb 21.
On Jan 6, the court at the Tis Hazari district court complex here upheld the CBI plea that a tax notice served on Quattrocchi was not linked with the criminal aspect of the Bofors kickbacks scam.
The court was hearing a petition by advocate Ajay Agarwal opposing the CBI’s application seeking to close all criminal cases against Quattrocchi.
The court asked the petitioner to satisfy it that the case closure application by the CBI was not in public interest, bonafide and in good faith.
The CBI had sought withdrawal of the cases against Quattrocchi in the Bofors pay-off scam citing lack of evidence even though a tax tribunal ruled in December 2010 that illegal commissions were indeed paid in the Rs.15-billion gun deal of 1987.
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) ruled Dec 31 that Quattrocchi and his associate Win Chadha, who is now dead, received a commission of over Rs.412 million in the Rs.15-billion howitzer gun deal in 1987.
