London: A day after the Indian government withdrew its case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors pay-off scam, Union Law Minister Veerapa Moily on Wednesday said that New Delhi had examined all possibilities and "found nothing was positive" in the matter.
"The case is going on since very long... If Quattrocchi
could be brought back or any conviction could be held... And
the case could be pursued with a positive result. All this has
been examined. But ultimately it was found that nothing was
positive...," Moily was quoted as saying by the TV channels.
Pointing out to a court ruling in 2002 which termed
the case as "a waste of time", Moily said the then ruling
BJP-led NDA coalition had not filed any appeal in the case
during its tenure.
The Law Minister also lauded the "positive role" of
the CBI in the case, an issue which the opposition alleges
that the UPA government had misused the intelligence agency.
"There was no appeal at all filed during the NDA
regime. Thereafter, the case went to the CBI which has taken
all together 22 years... They have been playing a positive
role," he said.
Rejecting opposition's charges of protecting
Quattrocchi, he said, "It is not a question of protecting. We
are not interested, we are least interested in Quattrocchi..."
"The Attorney General, the Solicitor General and our
law officers and also the CBI, everybody feels that there is
no basis for proceeding. There is no point in proceeding just
to satisfy the opposition."
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 15:46