Bofors payoff case: SC allows amendment of prayers in plea

The Supreme Court today allowed an advocate pursuing the Bofors payoff case to amend the prayers in his petition relating to Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in which he had sought directions for CBI to take action for stopping defreezing of his bank accounts in London.

A Bench headed by chief justice KG Balakrishnan, after initial reluctance, permitted advocate Ajay Agrawal to incorporate the prayers made by him in several applications in the main petition.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Bench said nothing survives in the petition as the accounts of the accused had already been defreezed. However, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Agrawal, said the matter cannot be allowed to be disposed of as several related developments had taken place after the filing of petition relating to Quattrocchi, who is an accused in the payoff case, since 2006.

He said not only the Italian businessman withdrew the amount from the bank in London but CBI had failed to secure his extradition despite being detained in Argentina on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner Notice.

Further, CBI withdrew the Red Corner Notice and recently filed an application in the trial court for withdrawing the prosecution of the case against Quattrocchi, he said.