New Delhi, Nov 27: A lawyers' organisation named after late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi today moved the Delhi High Court for quashing of certain observations by a special court here against the former premier in the order for framing charges in the Rs 64 crore Bofors pay off case against Europe-based Hinduja brothers. A bench comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice A K Sikri, posted the hearing for December 9 after CBI counsel A K Dutt submitted that the three Hinduja brothers have filed writ petitions for quashing of the CBI chargesheet before the court, which would be taken up for hearing on Nov 29.

The special judge in his order had observed that setting up of the joint parliamentary committee by the Rajiv Gandhi government to probe the Bofors scandal in 1987 was part of a "massive cover-up" exercise to quell the political storm caused by the exposure of the scam. Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Lawyers' Forum (RGMLF), in a Public Interest Litigation (Pil), filed by its president advocate Vijay Kumar Shukla, alleged that the observations made by special judge Prem Kumar in his 176-page order against Rajiv Gandhi "tantamounts to a verdict of found guilty, since he is no more to rebut and defend himself."

The CBI had placed Rajiv's name in the column-two of the first chargesheet in the Bofors case because he could not be sent for trial as he is no more. While making the "weird observations" against the former prime minister, "the learned judge has virtually acted in a manner as if he was vested with the powers of an ex-parte posthumous trial" of a dead person, the PIL alleged.

Bureau Report