The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted advocate Ajay Agrawal to amend the prayers in his 2006 petition in the Bofors payoff case relating to Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in which he had sought directions to unfreeze his bank accounts in London.
A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices J.M. Panchal and B.S. Chauhan allowed him to incorporate the prayers made by him in several applications in the main petition.
Initially, the CJI told counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, that nothing survived in the petition as the accounts of the accused were already unfrozen.
However, Mr. Bhushan said the matter could not be allowed to be disposed of as several related developments had taken place after the filing of petition. Not only the Italian businessman withdrew the amount from the bank in London but the CBI also failed to secure his extradition despite his detention in Argentina on an Interpol Red Corner Notice. Further, the CBI withdrew the RCN and recently filed an application in the trial court for withdrawing the prosecution of the case against Mr. Quattrocchi.
The Bench posted the matter for final disposal on March 23.
