Supreme Court Dismisses Final Bofors Appeal, Ends Decades-Long Litigation

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the last surviving challenge to a 2005 Delhi High Court judgment that quashed criminal proceedings in the Bofors pay-off case. A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran rejected the appeal filed by advocate and BJP leader Ajay K Agrawal, bringing a definitive end to one of India's longest-running corruption scandals.

The Bofors case involves allegations of kickbacks in a Rs 1,437-crore gun deal signed in 1986. The scandal severely dented the clean image of the Rajiv Gandhi government, dominated the 1989 general election campaign and contributed to the Congress losing power that year.

Courtroom Exchange And Dismissal

During the hearing, Agrawal requested four weeks to delete the names of deceased respondents Srichand P Hinduja and Gopichand P Hinduja from the petition. Prakash P Hinduja, who is the Europe chairman of the Hinduja Group, remains a respondent in the case.

The bench, however, refused to grant any further time to prolong the 2018 matter.

"What is all this about the Hinduja brothers and CBI?" the bench asked.

When informed that the Delhi High Court had quashed the proceedings, the bench remarked: "All proceedings were quashed. What is this? How many years have passed?"

As Agrawal attempted to explain the timeline, the bench cut him short.

"No, no...dismissed," the bench stated.

When Agrawal sought to make further submissions, the bench refused to adjourn the matter.

"No question of adjournment. It is a 2018 matter," the bench stated, before dismissing the appeal.

High Court Quashes Charges

The dismissal marks the end of the litigation arising out of the high court's May 31, 2005 judgment. In that ruling, Justice RS Sodhi quashed all charges against Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, as well as Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. Justice Sodhi strongly criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation's handling of the prosecution, observing that the investigation had cost the exchequer nearly Rs 250 crore. The court also noted that the agency relied on unauthenticated Swedish documents.

The Supreme Court had, in November 2018, dismissed the CBI's own appeal against the high court judgment due to an unexplained delay of 4,522 days. The top court had first questioned Agrawal's locus standi as a private individual in January 2018, asking how a private citizen could maintain an appeal when the investigating agency itself had not challenged the acquittal within the prescribed time.

Four Decades Of Scandal

The controversy traces its origins to the Rs 1,437-crore agreement signed on March 24, 1986, between the Government of India and AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155 mm howitzer guns for the Indian Army. The scandal erupted in April 1987 after Swedish Radio reported that illegal commissions had been paid to influential Indian politicians and defence officials to secure the contract.

The CBI registered an FIR in January 1990 and added the Hinduja brothers through a supplementary charge sheet in October 2000. However, the prosecution steadily unravelled over the years. In February 2004, Delhi High Court Justice JD Kapoor cleared Gandhi of any criminal culpability in the case.

Subsequently, Italian businessman and alleged middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi was discharged by a Delhi trial court in 2011 and died in 2013. Several other key accused also passed away during the prolonged proceedings, including alleged middleman Win Chadha, former Bofors president Martin Ardbo and former defence secretary SK Bhatnagar.