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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bofors arms deal: 'No evidence Rajiv Gandhi took bribe'

Bofors arms deal: 'No evidence Rajiv Gandhi took bribe'

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published Published on Apr 25, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 25, 2012
-BBC

A former head of Swedish police says there is no evidence that late Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi received a bribe in an arms scandal that contributed to his defeat as PM in elections in 1989.

Sten Lindstrom led the probe and has identified himself as the whistle-blower who recently leaked documents.

Mr Lindstrom said, however, that Gandhi had "done nothing" to prevent a "massive cover-up" in Sweden and India.

Swedish arms firm AB Bofors was accused of paying bribes in 1986.

They related to the sale of 400 howitzers to India.

Mr Lindstrom says he is the man who leaked documents relating to the investigation to reporter Chitra Subramaniam-Duella in an interview on the Indian media website The Hoot.

"I knew what I was doing when I leaked to documents to you. I could not count on my government or Bofors or the government of India to get to the bottom of this," he told the interviewer.
 
'Tarred'

Mr Lindstrom said that "there was no evidence that he [former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi] had received any bribe" in the deal.

"But he watched the massive cover-up in India and Sweden and did nothing. Many Indian institutions were tarred, innocent people were punished while the guilty got away."

However, he said the evidence against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was "conclusive".

Mr Quattrocchi was an accused in the high-profile corruption case, one of the longest-running criminal investigations in India.

Last year, India's income tax department ruled that more than $9m (£6m) in kickbacks were paid to Mr Quattrocchi and an Indian arms dealer, Win Chadha, in the scandal.

But the Italian businessman has always denied any involvement, arguing he was the victim of a political vendetta in India.

Mr Lindstrom said the $1.3bn deal with India along with a supply contract was the "biggest ever arms deal in Sweden" at that time.

"Money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. Rules were flouted, institutions were by-passed and honest Swedish officials and politicians were kept in the dark," he said.

"Our former Prime Minister Olof Palme was talking peace, disarmament and sustainable development globally, while we were selling arms illegally, including to countries that were on our banned list."

The Bofors corruption case contributed to the election defeat of Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, two years before he was assassinated.

In 2004, he was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing in the deal.

BBC, 25 April, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17835886


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