Bofors case: Court defers order on dropping Quattrocchi's name

A city court on Saturday deferred its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to withdraw Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's name from the Bofors gun deal payoff case.

A city court on Saturday deferred its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to withdraw Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi's name from the Bofors gun deal payoff case.

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Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja deferred the order to Nov 6 on whether the CBI's application under section 321 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) should be accepted.

The CBI had on Oct 3 moved an application before a court in New Delhi to quash all charges against Quattrocchi in the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case, saying the case cannot be kept pending forever as attempts to extradite him have failed in the past.

In a 1987 broadcast, a Swedish radio station alleged that nearly Rs 64 crore ($13 million) were paid in kickbacks to the Congress party and the Rajiv Gandhi government for the multi-billion dollar Bofors Howitzer deal. The scandal shook the nation and Rajiv Gandhi lost his two-thirds majority in parliament in the post-Bofors election two years later.