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

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday deferred the pronouncement of its order on a plea by a lawyer objecting to CBI's move to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg posted the matter for further proceedings on July 5.

"Apart from the fact that there is sufficient material and grounds against Quattrocchi for his prosecution, the conduct of the CBI and its counsels who happens to be top law officers of the country is highly deplorable and depicts an apparent and active collusion with the accused," Ajay Agrawal, the lawyer, said in his affidavit seeking rejection of CBI's plea.

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.