New Delhi: The Supreme Court today allowed
an advocate to file a fresh petition against Ottavio
Quattarocchi, an accused in the Bofors pay-off case, after
terming as infructuous his plea to stop defreezing of the
London bank accounts of the Italian businessman.
The apex court gave liberty to the lawyer, Ajay Agrawal to
file a fresh writ petition, saying the prayers made in his
petition filed in 2006 has become infructuous.
Agrawal had sought directions to the CBI to take steps to
stop operationalisation of the bank accounts of Quattarocchi
who is now staying in Italy.
"You withdraw this pending petition and file a fresh
writ petition as none of the prayers survive," a Bench
comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak
Verma and B S Chauhan said.
The Bench declared the petition "dismissed as withdrawn"
after Agrawal, who wanted to pursue the petition with amended
prayers, withdrew his petition and various other applications
filed by him relating to Quattrocchi.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said an application
by CBI for withdrawal of the case against Quattrocchi was
pending before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) and
Agrawal has opposed it.
The matter is listed for hearing before the CMM
tomorrow.
When the matter came up for hearing, the Bench said
nothing survives in the petition as the accounts of the
accused had already been defreezed.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Agrawal, said
there were various issues which required to be heard by
the court.
He said the matter cannot be allowed to be disposed of as
several related developments had taken place after the filing
of petition relating to Quattrocchi.
The court said any other issue relating to the matter
can be raised by the petitioner in a fresh writ petition.
-PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 00:56