# Supreme Court dismisses final Bofors appeal, ends four-decade-old case 2026-08-08T01:42:21+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the last surviving appeal in the Bofors pay-off case, closing a politically charged scandal that began in 1986. A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran rejected the plea of advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had sought four weeks to delete names of deceased respondents. The court said the 2018 matter could not be adjourned further. The Delhi High Court had quashed all criminal proceedings in 2005, ruling that the CBI failed to produce admissible evidence linking the accused to alleged kickbacks. The CBI did not appeal that order because the then UPA government denied permission. Agrawal, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi, then filed a third-party petition. The investigation cost nearly Rs 250 crore but never reached a criminal trial. The case collapsed on procedural failures: key foreign documents could not be authenticated, and the limitation period for appeal expired. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com - thefederal.com Tags: Bofors case, CBI, Hinduja brothers, political scandal, Supreme Court, UPA government Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-closes-bofors-case-rejects-2018-appeal/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-closes-bofors-case-rejects-2018-appeal/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.