Hearing put off on CBI move to close Quattrochi case
By IANSWednesday, March 31, 2010
NEW DELHI - A city court Wednesday put off till April 17 the hearing on a plea objecting to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) move to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg adjourned the case after Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra submitted that the original records related to the case were in the custody of the Supreme Court.
Advocate Ajay Agrawal, who filed the application against the CBI’s move to withdraw the case, said that his appeal filed in 2005 was still pending before the apex court.
He claimed that the CBI had not filed an appeal against the Delhi High Court judgment discharging some of the accused.
On Tuesday, the apex court asked Agrawal to withdraw his petition that the CBI be directed to take action for stopping the defreezing of Quattrochi’s bank accounts in London.
The court, however, allowed Agrawal to file a fresh petition against Quattrochi.
The CBI is misleading this court as the matter which is with the apex court is different. The CBI is actually working hands in glove with Quattrochi, Agrawal told Metropolitan Magistrate Garg.
Quattrochi, 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 Indian court.
The CBI failed on two occasions in its attempt to get Quattrochi extradited — first from Malaysia in 2003 and then from Argentina in 2007.
In November last year, the CBI asked the Interpol to take Quattrochi’s name off the Red Corner notice list.
