Centre decides to withdraw case against Quattrocchi

The ghost of Bofors pay-off may finally be given a legal burial with the Government telling the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has decided to withdraw case against Italian Businessmen OttavioQuattrocchi.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan, that all efforts to extradite Quattrocchi, an accused in the two-decade-old case relating to payment of Rs 64 crore as commission in the Swedish Howitzer deal, have failed.

He said the CBI has taken the decision to close the case by also taking into account Delhi High Court judgement

which had held that no case of corruption was made out in the Bofors deal.

Subramanium said the Government came to the decision after taking into account all the facts of the case.

The Solicitor General's statement in the court came under immediate attack from the BJP and the lawyer who is pursuing the Bofors case in the Supreme Court while the Congress Party said that after all the case has to come to a closure.