Bofors Scam- What Is the Reality behind..
Bofors howitzer gun which gave India an edge against Pakistan in the kargil war was huge scam during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Bofors which is a Swedish and British arm manufacturer and it has been manufacturing artillery since last 350 years.
India was in need of artillery to fight in higher altitude because both arch enemies of India i.e. Pakistan and China always had added advantage of altitude. With this mindset, then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi signed a deal worth 285 million dollars for supply of 410 155 mm howitzer field gun.As this deal was supposed to be biggest in Sweden so, Bofors did everything to seal the deal.
Image Courtesy- Zee News Co
As both Indian counterparts and Bofors counterparts didn’t knew each other so middlemen were hired who had connections on the both side for smooth completion of deal. After the completion of deal, everything was going smooth. In May 1987, there was radio broadcast claiming that around 600 millions had been paid by the representative of Bofors to the Indian people who were associated with the finalizing of the deal.
As this was a public broadcast in Sweden nothing would have happened in India, but unfortunately one of the reporter of Hindu newspaper Chitra Subramaniam was there covering another story. She further continued to look into the matter and secured the 350 pages documents which gave details about the payments made to Government of India for closing the deal.
After this news became headline in India, things didn’t go well with the Indian National Congress represented by Rajiv Gandhi at that time and he lost the general election held in November, 1989. Before losing the election, Rajiv Gandhi always said that no kickbacks were paid for completion of deals, but the report of Chitra Subramaniam said otherwise. After Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh became Prime Minister of India and he barred Bofors for signing any further contracts with Indian government for supply of artillery.
Then in January of 1990, CBI filed an FIR against then president of AB Bofors Martin Ardbo, Middlemen Win Chadda and Hinduja Brothers. An another Italian Businessmen named Ottario Quattrocchi wasinvolved for transfer of funds.After years of legal battle Swiss bank released document supporting the claim of scam and after that CBI field a charge sheet againstWin Chadda, Ottario Quattrocchi, S.K Bhatnagar, MartinKarl, Rajiv Gandhi. In 2002 Delhi High court dismissed all the proceedings of this case.
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However Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Delhi High Court. In 2004, Rajiv Gandhi and S.K Bhatnagar were exonerated. In 2005, all charges against Hinduja Brothers were dismissed. Cases was still going on until the middlemen Ottario Quattrocchi died of heart attack. However after this scam also, bofors got orders from Indian governments.
Bofors was used as a primary field artillery during the kargil war against Pakistan. Middlemen has always played a crucial role in finalization of deals so under the Modi’s government the charges paid to the middlemen men was legalized and it was called as legal fee.
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