The Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition on Thursday seeking to revive criminal proceedings against the Hinduja brothers and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors in the decades-old Bofors case. A bench led by Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran declined to entertain the appeal filed by advocate Ajay K Agrawal, effectively ending another attempt to reopen the case. During the hearing, Agrawal sought four weeks' time to remove the names of Srichand P Hinduja and Gopichand P Hinduja from the petition, as both had passed away, but the bench refused to grant additional time. Questioning the purpose of continuing litigation, Justice Pardiwala asked what remained to be adjudicated since the Delhi High Court had quashed the proceedings in 2005, and the CBI's challenge to that verdict had also failed. In a landmark judgment delivered on May 31, 2005, the Delhi High Court cleared Srichand, Gopichand, and Prakash Hinduja, along with AB Bofors, of all criminal charges, finding serious deficiencies in the prosecution's evidence and holding 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. The judgment also contained strong criticism of the CBI investigation, which reportedly cost the exchequer around Rs 250 crore. Following the ruling, the Hinduja brothers were discharged from the case, and their bail bonds were ordered to be returned, ending a legal battle that had stretched for nearly 14 years. The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed the CBI's appeal against the High Court verdict in November 2018, citing an unexplained delay of 4,522 days in filing the appeal. The Bofors controversy traces its origins to a Rs 1,437-crore contract signed on March 24, 1986, between the Government of India and Swedish defence firm AB Bofors for the purchase of 400 howitzers. The deal erupted into a major political scandal in 1987 after Swedish Radio alleged that illegal commissions had been paid to Indian politicians and defense officials to secure the contract. The Supreme Court's latest decision effectively shuts the door on any further challenge to the acquittal of the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors case.