It was the last UPA Government that had already set the stage for the withdrawal of all cases against Bofors-accused Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.

In a clear departure from its earlier reticence over handling of the Quattrocchi cases, this time the UPA Government’s entire top legal team got together to prepare the ground for the withdrawal of charges against Quattrocchi. The withdrawal application is set to be filed in the Tis Hazari courts on Saturday.

Speaking to The Indian Express from London, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said that the reference from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the withdrawal of cases was already on file when the second tenure of the UPA began.

He said, “The Government’s sanction to the CBI for filing a withdrawal application has been given and the opinions of the former Attorney General (Milon Banerjee) and the former Law Minister (H R Bharadwaj) were already on the file stating that no case was made out. However, we still decided to thoroughly reexamine the matter and the opinions of the present Attorney General (Goolam Vahanvati) and the Solicitor General (Gopal Subramaniam) were sought before referring the matter back to the DoPT and giving the clearance to the CBI.”

The Law Minister added: “All these law officers consulted were of the same opinion and after all, how many AGs and SGs can the Government consult in a single matter? How long can a dead horse be flogged so that fuel is given to political parties?”

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