New Delhi: The politically-sensitive Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-off case was back in the limelight on Friday with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear BJP leader Ajay Kumar Agarwal's appeal challenging a 2005 Delhi High Court order quashing charges against Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers in the matter.
Justice R S Sodhi of the Delhi High Court, since retired, had on May 31, 2005 quashed all charges against the three Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand -- and the Bofors company and castigated the CBI for its handling of the case saying it had cost the exchequer about Rs 250 crore. Taking note of the interim plea seeking an early hearing of 12-year-old appeal, a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would list the appeal for hearing in the week commencing from October 30 this year.
The apex court had on October 18, 2005 admitted his petition which was filed after the CBI failed to approach the top court with the appeal within the 90-day deadline following the High Court verdict.
The court's direction allowing early hearing of the appeal assumes significance in the wake of a demand in Parliament by ruling BJP MPs for reopening of the probe into the Bofors kickback scandal after the media reports quoting Swedish chief investigator Sten Lindstrom suggested alleged bribery at the top level.
Agarwal, who had contested the Rai Bareli Lok Sabha elections in 2014 against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, had said he would also draw the attention of the apex court that he had written a letter to the Enforcement Directorate seeking investigation into the trail of the kickback money under the 1999 Foreign Exchange Management Act and the 2002 Prevention of Money Laundering Act.