Court defers order on CBI's move to withdraw Bofors case

A Delhi court today deferred till May 15 pronouncement of its order on a plea of a lawyer objecting to CBI's move to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja adjourned the matter after Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra submitted that the original records, which were sent to the Supreme Court, have yet not been returned.

Advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had moved the court against CBI's action to withdraw the case on October three last year, filed some additional records in furtherance of his objection. He had earlier argued that the appeal filed by him in October 2005 in the matter was still pending before the apex court. He had claimed that CBI had not filed the appeal against the Delhi High Court judgement discharging some accused in the case.

    
Quattrocchi, 70, the sole surviving accused in the case after the Delhi High Court quashed the charges on May 31, 2005 against other accused, has never appeared before any court in the country. CBI had failed on two occasions in its attempt to get Quattrocchi extradited first from Malaysia in 2003 and then from Argentina in 2007. In November last year, the agency had asked the Interpol to take Quattrocchi's name off the Red Corner notice list.