The Congress party on Tuesday said the Bofors payoff case had never stood the test of law, hours after the central government told the Supreme Court about its decision to stop prosecution against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi for his alleged involvement in the case.
"Bofors
is a ghost or a phantom", which the opposition brings up repeatedly for political purposes, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in New Delhi.
Tewari added: "Whenever the matter went before a court of law either in India or abroad it never stood the test of law."
He said: "I think the matter should be brought to a close."
Tewari pointed out: "The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), in its wisdom keeping in mind the facts and circumstances which have transpired in one and a half decade, has now come to the conclusion that there is nothing else that can be legally done."
Earlier in the day, the government informed the Supreme Court that it had decided to stop all prosecution against Quattrocchi, who is accused of receiving bribe as a middleman in the 1.2 billion dollar purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam made the statement before a bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan during the hearing of a lawsuit of 1997, which had made an abortive demand for freezing of Quattrocchi's London bank account.