BOFORS SCAM - ROLE OF THE CONGRESS IN THE INEFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE CBI

Bofors Scam

The Bofors scandal is known as the hallmark of Indian corruption. The scam was interesting with the alleged involvement of the then Prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi in the scam. Decades later his wife Sonia Gandhi got another Prime minister Manmohan Singh to clean up the remnants of the cases registered in India and allow the chief accused Ottavio Quattrocchi withdraw the loot from overseas accounts.

People involved


1) Win Chadha
A Dubai-based businessman and arms agent named as one of the key accused in the scandal died in October 2001, days before a court was to give its verdict on his application to visit his family in the Gulf country. A former agent of Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors, Chadha was accused of receiving kickbacks in the Rs.14.37 billion deal signed in March 1986 for the supply of 400 155mm Howitzer field guns to India. He was extradited to India from Dubai in March 2000. He was given bail but was asked not to leave the country.

2) SK Bhatnagar,former defence secretary

A key figure in the long-running Bofors arms case, died in 2001 at the age of 71. Bhatnagar was heading the Price Negotiating Committee that allowed the Bofors bag the contract. He was accused of misusing his official position to tilt the scales in favour of the Swedish firm. He was given two extensions in office by Gandhi before he retired in 1989 and was made governor of Sikkim.

3) Martin Karl Ardbo
The former AB Bofors president, who signed the gun deal, died a 'proclaimed offender' in Sweden in July 2004. He was 77 and was suffering from cancer in his last days. It was he who had authored a diary in 1987 that hinted at the involvement of Gandhi, his Swedish counterpart Olaf Palme, the Hinduja brothers and Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the case. He was a former Swedish naval officer.He was called called for trial in India in 1999 but refused to appear.

3) Rajiv Gandhi
Accused of having received kickbacks. According to the respected Swiss magazine, Schweitzer Illustrate [November 1991 issue] Rajiv Gandhi had about $2 billion in numbered Swiss bank accounts—which Sonia inherited upon his assassination.
- Email from Schweitzer Illustrate

4) 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.

5) Shrichand Hinduja

6) Gopichand Hinduja

7) Prakash Hinduja

Scam
The Swedish State Radio had broadcast a startling report about an undercover operation carried out by Bofors, Sweden’s biggest arms manufacturer, whereby $16 million were allegedly paid to members of PM Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress.
Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others 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 Rs. 400 million.The case came to 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. Ottavio Quattrocchi was accused as the middleman in the scandal because of his intimacy with Rajiv and his Italian-born wife Sonia Gandhi. Magazine cover from India Today 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. Even 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 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.

Money trail in the Bofors scam
In the second half of 1985, AE Services (AES), a shell company, entered the deal with this offer to Bofors: “Look. If we get you the deal by March 31, 1986, give us a fee of three per cent. If not, don’t pay.” Bofors accepted the offer and signed up with the AES shell on October 15, 1985. Unless Bofors knew that the man behind AES had had the clout to get it done from the Rajiv government, it would never have signed with a shell company.
And AES shell did get the Rajiv government to sign the contract with Bofors on March 22, 1986 — seven days ahead of the target date of March 31, 1986. Within six months, AES got the first tranche of its fee of $7.3 million. Proof emerged slowly that this money finally went to Q, showing he was the man behind the shell. Bofors remitted on September 3, 1986, $7.3 million into AES account number 18051-53 in Nordfinanz Bank, Zurich. This equalled 20 per cent of the three per cent bribe of $36.5 millions due to AES.
Two weeks later (on September 16, 1986) AES delivered $7 million into account number 254.561.60W in the same bank in the name of Colbar Investments — a company controlled by Q and Maria.

In April 1987, the Swedish Radio broke the news of bribes in Bofors deal with India. Later, in June 1988, the media published authoritative documents seized by the Swedish police which established the payoff. By now, Bofors scam had become a huge national issue.

Forthwith Q and Maria hurriedly shifted their loot, grown with interest, from Geneva to Channel Islands, to New York to Austria. First, on July 25, 1988 $7.9 million moved from Colbar to account number 488.320.60X of Wetelsen Overseas SA, in UBS, Geneva. Next, on May 21, 1990, $9.2 million moved from Wetelson to account number 123983 of IIDCL, Ansbacher, St Peter Port, Guernsey (Channel Islands). Later, on June 5, 1990, $2.4 million channelled into code-named account ‘Robusta’ in Banque Karfinco SA from Swiss Bank Corp, New York. Afterwards, on June 12, 1990, $5.3 million was transferred to code-named accounts ‘Arabica’, ‘Robusta’ and ‘Luxor’ in Austria from Swiss Bank accounts in Geneva.

Within six days of the Swiss government giving these details to India in 1993, Q slipped out of India and turned a fugitive, thanks to the Narasimha Rao government helping him to run away.

Later, in June 2003, Interpol found that Q and Maria had two accounts, bearing numbers 5A5151516L and 5A5151516M in the London branch of the Swiss bank BSI AG with Euros three million and $1 million. They were frozen on CBI’s request. British courts later repeatedly turned down Quattrocchi’s several appeals to de-freeze the accounts.



How Rajiv Gandhi scuttled the Bofors probe
CBI was given investigation but too much interference by government made the agency ineffective. Later B Raman a top spymaster for India detailed how Rajiv ensured that the truth is never exposed.
Rajiv Gandhi mounted a cover-up operation and personally got involved in the cover-up exercise. He also encouraged officials and others close to him to create pin-pricks for V P Singh, who was in the forefront of those against a cover-up. At the instance of Rajiv Gandhi, a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) chaired by B Shankaranand, a Congress (I) MP, had been set up to inquire into the allegations of commission payments.
The JPC had deputed to Geneva and London, a team of investigators. They met only those who had little or no knowledge of the Bofors payments and avoided meeting those, who claimed to have knowledge of the payments.
The cover up was done by Rajiv Gandhi with the help of a group of officials -- some of whom are now working in the PMO and some of whom belong to intelligence investigating agencies. Some are even from Indian diplomatic missions abroad. CBI officers never interrogated the right people during their foreign trips to get to the bottom of the Bofors scam and even dined with the accused Hinduja brothers whom they were supposed to interrogate.
While visiting dignitaries thus started exercising caution about interactions with the Hindujas after their name cropped up in connection with the Bofors scandal, no inhibitions was coming in way of the interactions of senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation with the Hindujas during their visits to Geneva. Even after the scandal broke out, senior CBI officers having lunch with Prakash (Hinduja) or Srichand (Hinduja) or both in Geneva restaurants.

Quattrocchi allowed to leave India in 1993
In July 1993, the Swiss courts had permitted naming the account operators, and Quattrocchi had been officially named. At this point, CBI attempted to question Quattrocchi, and permission was sought to impound his passport. However, just before Quattrocchi could be detained, on the night of July 29–30, 1993, Quattrocchi left Delhi for Kuala Lumpur. It was alleged that he had been let off as part of a deal between Sonia Gandhi and the-then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao.

Quattrocchi accounts defreezed
In June 2003, a London branch of the Swiss bank BSI AG was found by the Interpol to have two accounts held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million. These accounts were then frozen upon the request of the CBI. Several appeals by Quattrocchi to de-freeze these accounts were turned down by British courts, based on vigorous marshalling of evidence by the CBI.
However, on December 22, 2005, the Indian government position changed rather suddenly. The law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj deputed the additional solicitor general of India, Mr. B. Dutta, to London to specifically request release of these accounts. However, it appears that the law ministry never consulted the investigating agency, CBI in this matter.
According to an e-mail from the British authorities (cited in India Today), “ Mr Datta conveyed his instructions on behalf of the Government of India, the Ministry of Justice and the Central Bureau of Investigation that no useful purpose will be served by maintaining the Restraining Order dated July 25, 2003, as there is no longer any reasonable prospect of the case against Mr Quattrocchi proceeding to trial.”
On January 16, 2006, a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court, and the CBI was ordered to ensure that the money was not withdrawn until the reasons for the government decision were clarified. The CBI asserted in court that Ottavio Quattrocchi was still wanted in charges related to Bofors. It has been alleged by a writ petition in the Supreme Court that B.B. Dutta may have acted under orders from the law minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj and that the CBI was most likely not consulted. In any event, by the time of the Supreme Court decision, the amount of more than US$4 million, had been withdrawn from these two accounts.
The issue caused parliamentary criticism of the government action, and also weakened the position of Sonia Gandhi, coming as it did within a year of the coalition led by her coming to power in the 2004 Elections. The main case against Quattrocchi continues to trickle through the Indian court system.

Arrest of Quattrocchi in Argentina and inaction by CBI
On 6 February 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of the Interpol warrant. The events unfolded as follows:
Late January, 2007: Ottavio Quattrocchi, despite having a warrant from Interpol in his name, takes an Alitalia flight from Italy to Buenos Aires, where he spends a few days, before proceeding to visit the Iguazu Falls. This area is a prominent tourist attraction, but is also a drug and terror alert region.[23]

February 6, 2007: At Iguazu, Quattrocchi goes over to nearby Brazil but is detained at Iguazu airport on his return on the basis of an Indian arrest warrant for "Falsification of Documents", later shown to be illegal by the Argentine court that tried Quattrocchi.

February 8: Interpol informs CBI about Quattrocchi's detention

February 13: The CBI responding to the Indian Supreme Court on a matter relating to money withdrawn by Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, does not mention the fact of Quattrocchi's detention. CBI admits later that it had this information at the time. Agency director Vijai Shankar is facing contempt of court charges in the matter.

February 23: CBI releases a statement about Quattrocchi's arrest in Argentina:
It has been informed by the Argentine authorities through diplomatic channels that Italian national Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in CBI Case RC.1(A)/90-ACU.IV/SIG (Bofors Case) and subject of Interpol Red Corner Notice # A-44/2/1997, has been detained and taken in preventive custody on February 6, 2007. Quattrocchi was detained at Iguazu International Airport in Argentina province of Misiones while in transit to Buenos Aires.

February 24: The opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims that this late release of information was orchestrated by the Congress government to avoid embarrassment to Sonia Gandhi during the ongoing state elections in Punjab and Uttaranchal.

February 26: Quattrocchi released on bail. It appears that the CBI/India was not represented in the matter. On the other hand, the Italian government supported Quattrocchi, with the Consul General of Italy being himself present in court.

March 2: The CBI sends a team to fight the extradition case coming up for which papers need to be filed by March 7. An English speaking lawyer is appointed by CBI.

June 9: The request for the extradition of Ottavio Quattrocchi is rejected by the court of El Dorado, Argentina on three counts:
1) The 1997 arrest warrant which specified as a motivation, "falsification of documents" was deemed to be illegal and based on an unsubstantiated accusation,
2) The 1997 arrest warrant had in any case been "used" by the prior arrest of Quattrocchi in Malaysia,
3)Arrest warrant and court order issued after the arrest of Quattrocchi, on February 23, 2007 was deemed to be arbitrary. The detailed judgment commented that "the CBI's request was not backed by ample judicial documents". In a final blow to the CBI, the investigative agency was also to pay the legal fees of Quattrocchi.

Role of Quattrocchi's son in his release
At the time of the Argentine arrest, Massimo Quattrocchi was had purportedly been in India for seven months. He had arrived in New Delhi on July 21, 2006, on Lufthansa flight 760, and left by Lufthansa flight 761 on February 22.
There was a sixteen day delay between when the CBI was informed about Quattrocchi's arrest in Argentina (February 7) and when the information was made public (February 23, the day after Massimo's departure). This together with the failure by CBI to explain their reasons for the delay has led to speculations on a possible Massimo role.
The CBI director, Vijai Shankar explained the delay saying that it took time to translate the documents from Spanish, but this explanation appeared lame, and it turned out to be false since the intimation was sent by the Indian Embassy in English. This delay, similar to the delay in informing the public about the de-freezing of the accounts, remained unanswered, leading to considerable speculation.
On February 17, Massimo was allegedly seen at a party thrown by Subhrakant Panda, MD of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys and brother of Rajya Sabha MP Baijayant Jay Panda of the Biju Janata Dal, where Priyanka Vadra was also present. Any meeting between Priyanka and Massimo was vigorously denied by Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, but when interviewer Karan Thapar asked him how he knew, he simply repeated the denial. Subsequently however, it was reported that the agencies were investigating his presence at the party, at the instance of Rahul Gandhi.
The presence of Massimo in this crucial period has led to charges by the opposition parties that Massimo, who grew up with Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, may have influenced the highest levels of the Indian government resulting in the inept CBI legal process that lost the case in Argentina. However, the Congress spokesman blamed the loss in Argentina to earlier NDA government incompetence: "we lost to three courts in Malaysia".

Removal of red corner notice
In April 2009, The Interpol removed the red-corner notice issued against Ottavio Quattrocchi after a request from the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Withdrawal of prosecution by CBI
A major chapter in the 25-year-old Bofors saga was closed with a Tis Hazari court discharging Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi from the payoffs case after allowing the CBI to withdraw prosecution against him.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav, in his 73-page order, noted that the CBI, despite “spending through the nose for about 21 years, has not been able to put forward legally sustainable evidence with regard to conspiracy in the matter. Further, in the case of Mr. Quattrocchi, as against the alleged kickback of Rs.64 crore he received, the CBI had by 2005 already spent around Rs.250 crore on the investigation, which is sheer wastage of public money.

Conviction
Most of the accused died of old age while the investigation still hasn't been concluded

Analysis
It was a clear case of abuse of power by those in the highest positions. The amazing turn of events that lead to Quattricchi's acquittal, removal of red corner notice, defreezing of accounts came just after Congress under Sonia Gandhi returned to power in 2004

Summary
THE CBI IS A MERE TOOL IN THE HANDS OF THE CONGRESS, WHICH IS USED BY THE CONGRESS TO COVER-UP IT'S CORRUPT DEALS !!!