Delhi court today allowed a CBI plea seeking withdrawal of prosecution against elusive Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the two-decade-old Bofors payoff case.
“The application of the CBI is allowed,” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav said.
“If the logical conclusion of a case is not possible then it is better to leave the issue,” he said.
“How long we will spend through our nose the hard- earned money of the aam-aadmi” in pursuing the case, the judge said while referring to the amount of over Rs 200 crore already spent in the investigations.
The CMM while passing the order said that the CBI did not go into the merits of the case while advocate Ajay Agrawal opposed CBI’s plea on merits.
Regarding the locus standi of Agrawal in this case, the CMM said, he ‘doesn’t have any locus standi in this case’.
The CMM said that he had also gone into the aspect of larger public interest as raised by Agrawal. Agrawal, however, said that he will appeal against the order of the court. 70-year-old Quattrocchi ‘cannot have special privilege because of his closeness to late Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’, he alleged.
