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| Advocate questions propriety of Govt counsel in 'Q' case |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Oct 22, 2009, 15:02 IST |
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An advocate, who opposed the CBI's move to withdraw the case against Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, today raised a question of propriety before a court here by alleging that senior government law officers, handling the case, had defended an accused in the payoff scam.
Ajay Agarwal, the advocate who filed his written submissions in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, alleged that Solicitor General (SG) Gopal Subramanium and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P P Malhotra, who are representing the CBI now, had appeared for Win Chaddha, one of the accused, before different courts here.
"The propriety and professional ethics demand that these counsel who are holding the high offices such as SG and ASG should have refused accepting the brief of Centre and the CBI in this Bofors gun deal scam case, once they had appeared for the accused persons," he submitted.
ASG Malhotra and CBI counsel Naveen Kumar Matta had earlier on October 9, questioned locus standi of Agarwal in opposing CBI's application to close the case against 69-year-old Quattrocchi, by claiming that "publicity and politics" should have no role to play and the petitioner was stranger in the matter.
In his reply, Agarwal countered their plea by saying that the Supreme Court had already accepted his locus in the Bofors case by accepting appeal filed by him against a Delhi High Court verdict.
The court had on the last date of hearing asked the parties in the case to file their written reply and had posted the matter for October 24 for passing the order on Agarwal's locus.
"The Supreme Court has recognised me as a party in the connected Bofors matter and decided the question of locus standi in my favour by granting permission to file special leave petition," Agarwal said in his reply.
The agency had on October 3 sought withdrawal of the case against Quattrocchi saying it has arrived at the conclusion after its failure on two occasions to get the Italian businessman extradited from Malaysia and Argentina to face the trial in India.
It was claimed by CBI that the plea to withdraw the case was filed in "good faith and in public interest."
Quattrocchi is the sole surviving accused in the case after the Delhi High Court quashed charges against other accused on May 31, 2005.
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