Now Reading: Supreme Court closes Bofors case, rejects 2018 appeal
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Supreme Court closes Bofors case, rejects 2018 appeal
The Supreme Court has dismissed a 2018 appeal challenging the 2005 Delhi High Court judgment that quashed criminal proceedings in the Bofors pay-off case, ending a four-decade-old politically sensitive case. A bench…
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court has dismissed a 2018 appeal challenging the 2005 Delhi High Court judgment that quashed criminal proceedings in the Bofors pay-off case, ending a four-decade-old politically sensitive case. A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran rejected the plea from advocate Ajay K Agrawal, who sought an adjournment to delete names of deceased accused, including Srichand P Hinduja and Gopichand P Hinduja. The court refused more time, saying: "No question of adjournment. It is a 2018 matter."
The Delhi High Court had previously quashed all charges against the Hinduja brothers and AB Bofors, ruling the prosecution failed to provide admissible evidence linking the accused to alleged kickbacks. The CBI did not challenge this order because the then UPA government denied permission. Agrawal, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi, filed the third-party petition after the CBI's inaction.
The Indian Opinion
The Bofors case has always been more political drama than legal pursuit. The UPA government's refusal to let the CBI appeal in 2005, and now the court's impatience with a third-party petition from a former Congress opponent, show how the case became a tool for scoring points. The real test was always the evidence, and the Delhi High Court found none worth admitting. Four decades later, the only question that matters is: will any party now drop the rhetoric, or will they keep milking a dead case for elections?
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
