NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal challenging a 2005 Delhi HC judgement that had quashed criminal proceedings in the Bofors pay-off case, bringing to an end a four-decade-old politically sensitive case.A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran rejected the appeal filed by advocate Ajay K Agrawal, who pleaded for adjournment of the hearing.During the brief hearing, Agrawal requested four weeks to delete the names of parties who have died during the pendency of the case – Srichand P Hinduja and Gopichand P Hinduja. Prakash P Hinduja, who is the Europe chairman of the Hinduja Group, remains a respondent in the case. SC, however, refused to grant any further time to prolong the 2018 matter. “No question of adjournment. It is a 2018 matter,” the bench said, before dismissing the appeal.Agrawal, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, filed the appeal after CBI did not challenge the high court order due to the denial of permission by the then UPA govt to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
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Justice RS Sodhi of Delhi high court had quashed all charges against the Hinduja brothers and AB Bofors, holding that the prosecution failed to provide admissible, reliable evidence linking the accused to the alleged kickbacks. As the CBI did not file a timely appeal against the high court order, Agrawal filed a third-party petition before the top court challenging the quashing of charges.
