The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal India in the 1980s; the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB (The name Bofors has been associated with the iron industry for more than 350 years.) for winning a bid to supply India's155 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 Rs. 400 million (almost US$9 Million).
The case came to light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defense minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism by Chitra Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the Indian Express and The Hindu.
The name of 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 Prime Minister Rajiv 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.
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, also naming Rajiv Gandhi, the defense secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others. In the meantime, Win Chadha also died.
The photo from a Swiss Magazine Schweizer Illustriertein (November 1991) – it shows the top holders of Swiss bank accounts at the time.
Rajiv Gandhi appears in the august company of other dictators like Saddam Hussein, Suharto of Indonesia, etc. The text below Rajiv’s photo reads: Rajiv Gandhi, Indian, Holds 2.5 billion Swiss Francs (eq. to 13,200 Crores in 1991).
What was and is Bofors Scam
The photo from a Swiss Magazine Schweizer Illustriertein (November 1991) – it shows the top holders of Swiss bank accounts at the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment