SC dismisses final Bofors case appeal, brings decades-long legal battle to an end

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the last remaining appeal in the politically sensitive Bofors bribery case, bringing all judicial proceedings connected to the nearly four-decade-old scandal to a formal close.

A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran declined to hear advocate Ajay K Agrawal's appeal against the 2005 Delhi High Court judgement that had quashed all criminal proceedings against the Hinduja brothers and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors.

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The court also rejected a request for more time to remove the names of accused Srichand P Hinduja and Gopichand P Hinduja, both of whom have passed away, saying there was no reason to delay the matter any further.

The bench observed that since the Delhi High Court had already quashed the proceedings and the CBI's appeal against that decision had also been dismissed earlier, there was no basis for keeping the case alive.

On May 31, 2005, the Delhi High Court had quashed all charges against the Hinduja brothers and AB Bofors. It had also criticised the CBI’s investigation, which reportedly cost the exchequer around Rs 250 crore.

The Delhi High Court had cleared Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, along with AB Bofors, of all criminal charges. The court found serious deficiencies in the prosecution’s evidence and held that the CBI had failed to establish any direct role of the Hinduja brothers in securing the 1986 gun deal or prove that the money allegedly received by them was linked to illegal commissions.

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The Supreme Court had earlier dealt a setback to attempts to revive the case by dismissing the CBI's appeal against the Delhi High Court verdict in November 2018. The top court cited an unexplained delay of 4,522 days in filing the appeal.

The Bofors controversy began with the Rs 1,437-crore deal signed on March 24, 1986, between the Government of India and Swedish firm AB Bofors for the purchase of 400 howitzers. A year later, in 1987, Swedish Radio alleged that illegal commissions had been paid to Indian politicians and defence officials, setting off one of the country’s biggest political scandals.

With the dismissal of the final appeal, all legal proceedings related to the Bofors case have now officially come to an end.