SC To Hear Bofors Pay-Offs Case In October

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear  the plea in bofors pay-off case by BJP leader and advocate Ajay Kumar Agarwal in October. He had challenged the Delhi High Court May 31, 2005 judgement quashing all charges against the Europe-based Hinduja brothers in the Bofors pay-off case.

The decision by a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices D Y Chandrachud and A M Khanwilkar comes amidst recent media reports suggesting a financial quid pro quo for the Rs 1,437 crore Howitzer gun deal in 1986.

The apex court had on October 18, 2005 admitted Agarwal’s petition which was filed after the CBI failed to approach the top court with the appeal within the 90-day deadline following the High Court verdict.

Agarwal, who had contested the Rai Bareli Lok Sabha elections in 2014 against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, had said he will also draw the attention of the apex court that he had written a letter to the Enforcement Directorate seeking investigation into the trail of the kickback money under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

In the July 28 letter to the ED, he has claimed that the alleged crimes were committed continuously till the year 2006 when two London accounts held by Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, who was accused as being one of the middlemen in the deal, were de-freezed.