The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s; initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several others who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. It has been speculated that the scale of the scandal was to the tune of 640 Million Rupees. The case came into light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism by Chitra Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the Indian Express and The Hindu.
The middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was reportedly close to the family of Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the 1980s between big businesses and the Indian government. While the case was being investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 for an unrelated cause by the LTTE. In 1997, the Swiss banks released some 500 documents after years of legal battle and the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) filed a case against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others. In the meantime, Win Chadha also died.
Meanwhile February 5, 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others,but the case is still being tried on charges of cheating, causing wrongful loss to the government, etc. On May 31, 2005, the High Court of Delhi dismissed the Bofors case allegations against the British business brothers, Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, but charges against others remain.
In December 2005, Mr B. Daat, the additional solicitor general of India, acting on behalf of the Indian Government and the CBI, requested the British Government that two British bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi be unfrozen on the grounds of insufficient evidence to link these accounts to the Bofors payoff. The two accounts, containing € 3 million and $1 million, had been frozen. On January 16, the Indian Supreme Court directed the Indian government to ensure that Ottavio Quattrocchi did not withdraw money from the two bank accounts in London. The CBI, the Indian federal law enforcement agency, on January 23, 2006 admitted that roughly Rs 21 crore, about US $4.6 million, in the two accounts have already been withdrawn by the accused. The British government released the funds later.
However, on January 16, 2006, CBI claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that they were still pursuing extradition orders for Quattrocchi. The Interpol, at the request of the CBI, has a long-standing red corner notice to arrest Quattrocchi. Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February 2007, but the news of his detention was released by the CBI only on 23 February. Quattrocchi was released by Argentinian police. However, his passport was impounded and he was not allowed to leave the country.
However, as there was no extradition treaty between India and Argentina, the case was presented in the Argentine Supreme Court. The government of India lost the extradition case as the government of India did not provide a key court order which was the basis of Quattrochi's arrest. In the aftermath, the government did not appeal this decision because of delays in securing an official English translation of the court's decision.
A Delhi court provided temporary relief for Quattrocchi from the case, for lack of sufficient evidence against him, on 4 March 2011. However the case is still going on. Despite the controversy the Bofors gun was used extensively as the primary field artillery during the Kargil dispute with Pakistan and gave India 'an edge' against Pakistan according to battlefield commanders.Source : Wiki
Bofors scam: Swedish whistleblower reveals his identity
New Delhi: Nearly 25 years after the Bofors scam rocked both India and Sweden, the Swedish whistleblower who had blown the lid off the illegal payoffs case has revealed his identity.
In an interview that appears on the website hoot.org, former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom has owned up being the person who leaked over 350 documents to Indian journalist Chitra Subramanian, who was the first to break the story. He has also admitted that he was the journalist’s secret informant who operated under the pseudonym of ‘Swedish Deep Throat.’ Mr Lindstrom led the investigations into the Bofors-India gun deal.
The Bofors case dates back to 1986, when Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a 15 billion dollar contract to supply Howitzer guns to India. A year later, Swiss media began reporting that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials. Reacting to the reports, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had assuredParliament that that was not the case. The Bofors scandal however cost him the general election in 1989.
In his interview on hoot.org, Mr Lindstrom said there was no evidence to suggest that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had taken any bribe in the guns deal. He has however alleged that Mr Gandhi “watched the massive cover-up” in India and Sweden and “did nothing.”
Mr Lindstrom has also talked about Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, who was believed to be one of the major players in the Bofors scam. He said the evidence against Mr Quattrochi was “conclusive” as the bribes paid by Bofors landed in his account. “Nobody in Sweden or Switzerland was allowed to interrogate him,” he added.
In 1990, when the BJP-led NDA was in power, the CBI filed a complaint against Mr Quattrochi in the case. The charges against him included serving as a conduit for bribes. Others named in the CBI case included Win Chadha, who was Bofors’ representative in India. Mr Chadha died in 2001.
Mr Quattrochi left India in 1993 to avoid being arrested. In March 2011, a Delhi court allowed the CBI to close its criminal case against him after the investigating agency submitted that after 25 years and Rs 250 crores, it had not been able to get Mr Quattrocchi extradited to India, despite appeals in both Malaysia and Argentina.
In an interview that appears on the website hoot.org, former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom has owned up being the person who leaked over 350 documents to Indian journalist Chitra Subramanian, who was the first to break the story. He has also admitted that he was the journalist’s secret informant who operated under the pseudonym of ‘Swedish Deep Throat.’ Mr Lindstrom led the investigations into the Bofors-India gun deal.
The Bofors case dates back to 1986, when Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a 15 billion dollar contract to supply Howitzer guns to India. A year later, Swiss media began reporting that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials. Reacting to the reports, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had assuredParliament that that was not the case. The Bofors scandal however cost him the general election in 1989.
In his interview on hoot.org, Mr Lindstrom said there was no evidence to suggest that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had taken any bribe in the guns deal. He has however alleged that Mr Gandhi “watched the massive cover-up” in India and Sweden and “did nothing.”
Mr Lindstrom has also talked about Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi, who was believed to be one of the major players in the Bofors scam. He said the evidence against Mr Quattrochi was “conclusive” as the bribes paid by Bofors landed in his account. “Nobody in Sweden or Switzerland was allowed to interrogate him,” he added.
In 1990, when the BJP-led NDA was in power, the CBI filed a complaint against Mr Quattrochi in the case. The charges against him included serving as a conduit for bribes. Others named in the CBI case included Win Chadha, who was Bofors’ representative in India. Mr Chadha died in 2001.
Mr Quattrochi left India in 1993 to avoid being arrested. In March 2011, a Delhi court allowed the CBI to close its criminal case against him after the investigating agency submitted that after 25 years and Rs 250 crores, it had not been able to get Mr Quattrocchi extradited to India, despite appeals in both Malaysia and Argentina.
Source : wiki
Bofors scandal: Big B finally deemed innocent after 25 yrs
Relief has come home to megastar Amitabh Bachchan 25 long years after the Bofors scandal hit the Indian shores. A Swedish whistleblower has owned up to being guilty of the charges and has also said that neither the then Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and nor Amitabh Bachchan were involved in the case. In fact, according to reports, senior Bachchan was only being made a scapegoat due to his family relations with the Indian supremo. Now the truth has come out, and the Bachchan family seems to have heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"I speak from personal experience and personal exoneration. 25 years after the incident, I read today from one that pioneered accusation and investigation, of innocence. Of the fault that never lay before me. Of one that remained and shall perhaps remain a darkened spot, blemished beyond all recognition, but in admittance of wrong doing against me. No one shall be able to understand or even remotely fathom, the hours and days and months and years of the anguish of petulant blame that I had to go through," Amitabh wrote quite expressively on his blog late last night. The normally reserved Jaya Bachchan has also spoken out, “I’m happy that he has been acquitted. God is great.”
"I regret that my parents are not alive to see me given clean chit. It took 25 years to come clean the loss, taint and pain I had to bear is irreparable," he said.
"I don't know politics so I withdrew my papers but coincidentally the bofers matter surfaced and people assumed that I backed out.
"I was told that my name was planted by the investigating agencies as it was near in the list of accused," he said.
According to Wikipedia, the Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s; initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several others who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections.
Source : http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/ENT-big-b-finally-deemed-innocent-25-yrs-after-bofors-scandal-3165466.html?HT2=
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