New Delhi, April 26: The Bofors issue returned to rock Parliament today with the Opposition parties demanding reopening of the graft case and a judicial probe into it, while the Congress stubbornly rejected it, underlining that the Supreme Court had pulled curtains over it.

A strident Opposition, which forced adjournments over the issue, however, gave up in the afternoon and allowed both Houses of Parliament to transact business. In the Lok Sabha, angry BJP members trooped into the Well of the House after a heated exchange with Congress members, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for over 90 minutes.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed three adjournments over the issue apart from a war of words between leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and nominated member Mani Shankar Aiyar.

In the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Jaswant Singh raised the issue during Zero Hour and demanded a judicial probe. Singh said “Bofors was a continuing saga of corruption” and “in matters of corruption there is no closure”.

Singh demanded an inquiry to find out why and how the name of Amitabh Bachchan had been dragged into the case, how Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi — prime accused in the case — was allowed to escape from Delhi and why the government had sent a representative to London to release his accounts.

He acknowledged the failure of the NDA government in extraditing Quattrocchi but said the Congress should not use “our failure as their success”. He held that whatever was happening in the sphere of defence at present was a result of the Bofors scandal and said a judicial probe should be instituted to bring out the complete truth.

The CPM’s Basudeb Acharia joined him to demand re-opening of the case, extradition of Quattrocchi and institution of an independent inquiry. The CPM leader spoke amidst barbs from the treasury benches about what the Left had done on the issue when it supported the UPA-I government.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were present in the House when the name of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was raised in connection with the case. Singh however mentioned that the absence of Rajiv Gandhi, a “promising leader”, was felt.

Pandemonium set in once Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam stood to defend the government and attack the Opposition. He pitied the BJP for raising a “dead” issue and rejected the demand for re-opening the case, pointing out that the Supreme Court had closed it.

“The Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi and closed the case. The BJP should apologise for tarnishing the image of our great leader,” Nirupam said, leading angry BJP members to rise in protest and later troop into the Well of the House leading to adjournment.

In the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley sought to sting the Congress. “Somebody got the contract and somebody got the kickback… This man (Quattrocchi) is so powerful. The entire Indian state appeared helpless… This is a text book illustration of fraud,” he said, inviting angry responses from Congress members.

Mani Shankar Aiyar shot back and alleged that Jaitley was the additional solicitor-general who had done paperwork in the Bofors investigation case and it was his shabbily done job that had shown the country in a poor light. This led to uproar and adjournment.

Interestingly, here Samajwadi Party member Mohan Singh too supported the Opposition’s demand for re-opening of the Bofors case and a thorough probe.