New Delhi, September 29: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it wanted to end all prosecution against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi for his alleged involvement in the Bofors payoff case.
According to reports, Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who represented the government, made the statement before a bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan during the hearing of a lawsuit of 1997, which had made an abortive demand for freezing of Quattrocchi’s London bank account.
The CBI’s intentions to shut all cases against the Italian businessmen comes days after a Delhi court allowed the CBI two weeks time for exploring the options available to it in Bofors payoff case; this after the withdrawal of Interpol’s Red Corner notice against Quattrocchi.
Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi granted the time to the probe agency after Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra submitted that the matter was under consideration of the Centre and CBI.
Earlier, Quattrocchi was declared a proclaimed offender as he did not appear to face trial and, as a result, charges could not be framed against him despite two chargesheets in the 19-year-old Bofors payoff case.
Quattrocchi is accused of receiving bribe as a middleman in the 1.2 billion dollar purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The infamous Bofors scandal has for long haunted the ruling Congress party as several of its top leaders, including former PM Rajiv Gandhi, were named in the arms deal.
—Agencies