Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has backed the Centre's decision to drop the case against Ottavio Quattrocchi admitting that there was nothing left to do in the case.
However, he has been asked not to leave the country.
Quattrocchi is wanted in the Bofors case for the last 14 years.
The extradition trial began four months after the Italian businessman was detained in Misiones province on February six while he was on his way to Brazil.
A senior leader of the party said that the arrest of Quattrocchi could not have taken place without the express approval of Sonia Gandhi who may have decided to dump him as he was becoming a liability for her and her party.
Two days after the Centre decided to close the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors gun deal, an application was on Thursday moved in a Delhi Court seeking rejection of any closure report that may be filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The application said that CBI had the information that Quattrocchi was held in Argentina since Febraury 8 but it maintained a discreet silence even when a matter relating to him was heard before the apex Court on February 12.
Less than two months after he was detained at Iguazo International Airport, about 100 km in the Misiones province, on an Interpol Red Corner notice, Quattrocchi appeared before the judge in the first court in El Dorado.
A Delhi court on Friday accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation plea to shut the Bofors payoff case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. The verdict of the court comes as a relief for Quattrocchi, as the CBI will now withdraw its case against him.
The CBI had, in October 2009, sought permission of the court to withdraw the case against Quattrocchi, saying that his continued prosecution was "unjustified" in the light of various factors including the agency's failed attempts to extradite him.
The Interpol on Wednesday said the red corner notice against the accused in the Bofors case Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was let off recently after being detained in Argentina, was still "operational".
Javedkar claimed that the Argentine court verdict was the result of the government's all-out effort to save and not nab Quattrocchi.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed an application before a Delhi court seeking closure of the Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. In the plea filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, the probe agency said all efforts to extradite Quattrocchi for facing the trial in India has failed.The agency opposed the plea of advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had filed an application in his personal capacity.
A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea of Central Bureau of Investigation seeking withdrawal of criminal proceedings against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in more than two-decade-old Bofors pay off case.
Agrawal had filed the appeal against the May 31, 2005 judgement of the High Court after CBI had failed to approach the apex court in mandatory 90 days period.
A Bench headed by Justice C K Thakker also sought a response from the agency on a plea seeking the presence of Quattrocchi before the trial court in Delhi.
The 69-year-old businessman left this country for his home in Milan in his native Italy. His passport was returned by Argentinian authorities last week.
The court had earlier fixed May 17 as the next date of hearing but CBI's lawyer Miguel Almeyra requested for a change in view of his pre-occupation at courts in Buenos Aires.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has decided to withdraw the case against Italian businessmen Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was one of the main accused in the Bofors scandal.
Advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had filed an application questioning government's effort in securing the foreign national's extradition from Argentina after he was detained on February 6, 2007, said the El Dorado court declined India's request as the original arrest order of 1997 by a court in New Delhi was not produced by the CBI. He was responding to the order passed by the Argentine court, the translated copy of which was provided to him by the Centre.
With payoffs in Bofors gun deal under the spotlight again, a former Central Bureau of Investigation officer who supervised the case claimed that alleged hawala dealer SK Jain told the probe agency he and Ottavio Quattrocchi received kickbacks from projects routed through them including the howitzer deal.
India's top investigating agency says the Italian businessman, believed to be involved in the Rs 6.4 million Bofors payoff scam, is hiding in Italy.
Indian Ambassador to Argentina Parmathesh Rath said it was now for the Argentine government to see whether the papers were in order to carry forward the process.
The Italian businessman is one of the main accused in the Bofors payoff scam.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary body on Wednesday decided to rake up the Bofors pay-off issue in Parliament in the wake of fresh allegations that then prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi may have 'soft-pedalled' the probe to protect Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
The team is expected to present the request through diplomatic channels on Thursday, the CBI said.
Does the public, in this case our readers, you, really care about who Quattrocchi is? Has the Bofors scandal become one of those meaningless exercises with no end in sight?
A Delhi court on Saturday decided to hold the proceedings afresh on the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, who had earlier reserved her order and deferred the pronouncement of verdict on eight occasions, decided to hear the argument afresh as the trial court record, lying with the Supreme Court, was received two days ago.
A division bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma while declining to concede the plea made by the Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra posted the matter for arguments to April 17.
A Delhi court on Saturday deferred the pronouncement of its order on a plea by an advocate opposing Central Bureau of Investigation's move to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
Meeting against the backdrop of reports of Bofors kickbacks, the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Executive on Sunday decided to go after the first family of Congress, alleging that Ottavio Quattrocchi's involvement in the pay-offs lead 'directly to the doorstep of Sonia Gandhi'.
The Law minister told reporters that the two bank accounts of the Italian businessman in London were not frozen permanently.
The CBI move might lead to deferring of the two accounts.
A Delhi court on Monday deferred the pronouncement of its order on a plea by an advocate opposing the Central Bureau of Investigation's move to withdraw the two-decade-old Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja posted the matter for further proceedings on August 7 in view of the case records lying with the Supreme Court.
Indian Ambassador to Argentina Pramathesh Rath said that the judge would give detailed reasons for the judgement on June 13.
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