New Delhi, Sept. 1: The Supreme Court has decided to take up in October a BJP leader's appeal challenging the Delhi High Court verdict quashing the charges against the Hinduja brothers in the alleged Rs 64-crore Bofors payoffs.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud did not specify any date for hearing the appeal of BJP leader Ashok Agrawal.

An advocate by profession, Agrawal had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general election against Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli.

In October 2005, Agrawal had filed an appeal against the Delhi High Court order quashing the charges against the London-based industrialists Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja. The BJP leader moved the apex court after the CBI did not appeal against the high court order within the 90-day window.

The matter, which had got adjourned on several occasions, came up for hearing today. Within a minute, the Supreme Court adjourned it to October.

The CBI had in January 1990 registered an FIR under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act against several persons, including the Hinduja brothers, then AB Bofors president Martin Ardbo, alleged conduits Win Chaddha and Ottavio Quattrocchi and then defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar in the payoffs case.

India had plunged into political turmoil in 1987 after Swedish Radio announced the alleged payoffs to the tune of Rs 64 crore to several politicians and individuals for settling the Rs 1,437-crore deal to purchase over 400 Howitzer guns for the Indian Army.

The allegations eventually culminated in the Rajiv Gandh-led Congress losing power at the Centre.