New Delhi: Almost three decades after the controversial Bofors scandal, President Pranab Mukherjee has called it a media trial that could not be proven in any Indian court. In an interview to a Swedish national daily, the President said he was the defence minister of the country long after the scandal and all army generals certified that Bofors were one of the best guns in the military.
"It is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it. I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, Indian army is using it. The so-called scandal, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I'm afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity," he said.
Aiming to replace the old field guns and artillery in the hands of the Army, the Indian government in the mid 1980s decided to go ahead with the induction of bigger calibre 155 mm howitzers. The Haubits FH-77 gun manufactured by AB Bofors of Sweden, a company which was once owned by Alfred Nobel, was selected. A deal was signed on March 24, 1986, between New Delhi and the Swedish metals and armaments major, which said AB Bofors would supply the Indian Army with 410 155-mm howitzers. An option to license-produce 1000 more guns was also included in the deal. The amount was a significant $285 million (about Rs 1500 crore) for a pre-liberalisation India.
The first whiff about the scandal came on April 16, 1987 when a Swedish Radio broadcast claimed that AB Bofors had paid kickbacks to key Indian policy makers and top defence officials to secure the deal. News about this broadcast was carried in the Indian media and the Rajiv Gandhi government issued a prompt denial.
The Bofors kickbacks became the key poll issue in the November parliamentary polls in 1989. The Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress was voted out of power and on December 26 of the same year, Prime Minister VP Singh's government barred AB Bofors from entering into any further defence contract with the Government of India. Incidentally VP Singh was the defence minister when the deal was signed.
On January 22, 1990, the CBI registered the first formal complaint in the case. However, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE suicide bombers on May 21, 1991. This led to a general slackening of the investigative process which many observers say allowed Quattrocchi to leave India in the end of July, 1993.
After years of legal procedures and constant wrangling, on January 21, 1997, the Swiss authorities gave the Government of India secret documents which allegedly ran into over 500 pages. Barely a week later, a special investigative team was set up by the CBI to investigate the case.
Later in the same year, the CBI filed formal charges against Rajiv Gandhi, Ottavio Quattrocchi, AB Bofors and its former chief Martin Ardbo, defence secretary SK Bhatnagar and AB Bofors agent Win Chadha. Letters were sent out to Malaysia and UAE seeking the arrest of Quattrocchi.
Towards the end of 2000, the Malaysian authorities arrested Quattrocchi. But he secured bail but was asked to stay in the country.
On September 29, 2009, the Government of India informed Supreme Court about its decision to withdraw the case against Quattrocchi as he could not be extradited. Though in the beginning of 2011, an Income Tax tribunal ruled that a commission of over Rs 40 crore in violation of Indian laws was indeed paid to Quattrochi and Chadha in the gun deal. But on March 4, 2011, a Delhi court, realising the futility of the exercise, allowed the CBI to drop all charges against Quattrochhi and to close the case.
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