CBI can't touch 'Q', plea for quiet burial of Bofors case
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday told a court that it didn't have enough evidence against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi to prosecute him in the Bofors payoff scandal.
The CBI plea at the Tis Hazari court came a day after an Income Tax tribunal ruled that Quattrocchi and his associate Win Chadha had received a commission of over Rs.412 million in the nearly Rs.15-billion Howitzer gun deal of 1986, in violation of government's policy.
The court is expected to deliver its verdict later in the day.
The lawyer opposing the CBI plea, Ajay Agarwal, has claimed he has enough evidence against Quattrocchi, but the agency still wanted to give the case a quiet burial.
He has formally filed his objections.
The CBI is seeking to drop criminal proceedings against Quattrocchi on the grounds that there was no evidence against him and that persisting with the case would serve no purpose.
The agency had in 1999 charged former defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar, Quattrocchi, Chadha, former Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and the company in connection with the case.
Bhatnagar, Ardbo and Chadha are dead. Quattrocchi - who has never appeared before any court in India - is the only surviving accused.
The CBI had failed on two occasions to get Quattrocchi extradited - first from Malaysia in 2003 and then from Argentina in 2007.
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