Supreme Court dismisses CBI’s appeal against HC order in Bofors case

Bofors case: Supreme Court rjects the CBi’s appeal against Delhi Hc order quashing charges against Hinduja brothers. But says agency can raise its points in another pending petition on same matter filed by advocate Ajay Aggarwal @IndianExpress

— Ananthakrishnan G (@axidentaljourno) November 2, 2018

The court observed that the CBI can raise an appeal against the same HC verdict in another petition filed by advocate Ajay Agarwal which has been pending and the agency can raise all grounds in that case.

The deal of Rs 1,437-crore was made between India and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 units of 155-mm Howitzer guns for the Indian Army on March 24, 1986.

In April 16, 1987, the Swedish Radio had claimed that AB Bofors had paid bribes to top Indian politicians and defence personnel. The CBI registered the FIR in 1990 against Martin Ardbo, the then chief of the company AB Bofors for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. FIR was registered against alleged middleman Win Chadda and the Hinduja brothers also.

The first charge sheet in the matter was filed on October 22, 1999 against Chadda, Ottavio Quattrocchi, the then defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, Ardbo and the Bofors company.

A supplementary charge sheet in the case was filed against the Hinduja brothers on October 9, 2000. A special CBI court, on March 4, 2011, discharged Quattrocchi from the case, saying the country could not afford to spend hard-earned money on his extradition which had already cost Rs 250 crore.

— With PTI inputs