{"id":29978,"date":"2017-10-21T15:52:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T10:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=29978"},"modified":"2017-10-21T15:54:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-21T10:24:59","slug":"now-cbi-wants-bofors-case-reopened-asks-permission-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/india-news\/now-cbi-wants-bofors-case-reopened-asks-permission-govt\/","title":{"rendered":"Now CBI too wants Bofors case reopened, asks permission from Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ajay Agarwal\u2019s SLP is due to come up for hearing on October 30. The CBI, as a respondent in the case, was to take a stand before the apex court during the hearing. Now, the agency, in a letter to the Department of Personnel and Training, has asked it to reconsider the UPA government\u2019s decision in 2005, in which it did not allow the CBI to file an SLP against the 2005 high court order. That order had acquitted the Hindujas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Delhi High Court<\/strong><\/a> judge RS Sodhi had on May 31, 2005 let off the Hinduja Brothers\u2014 Srichand, Gopichand and Prakashchand in the case. The CBI, then did not file a plea challenging the order within the given 90-day period. The agency wanted to file the SLP challenging the acquittal but the then UPA government did not give it the green signal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Agrawal had filed his plea on September 1 before the Supreme Court<\/strong><\/a> bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud seeking an urgent hearing in the Bofors case. In his petition he has challenged the same 2005 Delhi High Court order. The matter is listed for final hearing on October 30. Now, with the CBI wanting to file an SLP for the same matter, it will have to approach the court \u2013 following permission from the government \u2013 and buy time to file the petition and also to request the court to club its appeal with that of Agrawal.<\/span><\/p>\n

The CBI has, for some time, expressed its interest in reopening the case. On October 18 this year it had said that it would look into the \u201cfacts and circumstances\u201d of the scandal mentioned by private detective Michael Hershman, president of US detective agency Fairfax.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hershman, in an interview to Republic World Television on Tuesday (October 17) said the Rajiv Gandhi government had sabotaged his investigation in the Bofors case. <\/span><\/p>\n

Using this as fresh ammunition, the BJP raised the Bofors issue to target and embarrass Congress. Reacting, Congress Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi had said the BJP was diverging from its own failure by raking up the Bofors scam. \u201cThis is just propoganda. This is an effort by the government to diverge from their own failures and I don’t think that you can continue to flog a dead horse for 10 years but it starts stinking,\u201d said Tulsi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad also hit out at the ruling party, saying the BJP plays games over Bofors. \u201cUntil when will the BJP play games over Bofors? The scandal was worth Rs. 64 crore and everything has come to fore. Even the court exonerated late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,\u201d said Ahmad.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"