New Delhi,
A day after the CBI moved the Supreme Court to revive the politically-sensitive Bofors payoffs case after more than 12 years, former Union law minister and senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Saturday questioned the agency’s decision terming it “utterly untenable”.

Kumar alleged that it was a politically-motivated decision that went against the considered opinion of the Attorney General KK Venugopal.

“The decision of CBI to move the Supreme Court in the Bofors case in an unprecedented negation of the sanctity of the considered legal opinion of the Attorney General. Yet another constitutional institution stands weakened,” the former Law Minister said in a statement.

Venugopal had advised the CBI not to file an appeal against the May 31, 2005, verdict of the Delhi High Court discharging all the accused, including Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers.

“Any SLP (special leave petition) at this stage, in my view, is likely to be dismissed on account of the long delay itself,” the Attorney General had opined. It is understood he later gave oral permission for filing of appeal.

Terming it a “brazen infraction of judicial norms and the settled principle of jurisprudence that criminal prosecution must not be allowed to prolong endlessly and there should be finality to litigation,” Kumar said, “The law of limitation cited by the Attorney General in support of his opinion is based on this principle.”

The CBI cited an October 2017 interview of private detective Michael Hershman, who alleged that the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had sabotaged his investigation into the payoff case.

But Kumar said: “The reason given for reopening a case 12 years after the High Court decision is utterly untenable. The ex-facie self-serving statement by a foreign private detective to a TV channel cannot displace the voluminous record of investigation and the well-considered judicial verdict in the matter. The politically motivated decision of the government is a gross act of malice.

The question that begs itself is whether this is a case of lawful prosecution or political persecution. The matter will finally be decided in the people’s court,” he said.