Sweden inconclusively brought the curtains down on the probe into the Bofors scandal to prevent embarrassment to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a confidential CIA assessment which was declassified in December 2016 has revealed.
The scandal relates to alleged kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the Government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns, and a supply contract almost twice that amount.
"Stockholm wanted to save Gandhi the troubles caused to him by the Swedish leak, and Nobel Industries (a sister company of Bofors AB which took over Bofors AB in 1985) wanted to avoid a bribery indictment. The two sides cooperated, therefore, on a scheme to keep details of the payments secret," Economic Times reported citing a secret CIA assessment titled ‘Sweden’s Bofors Arms Scandal’.
What is equally interesting is that New Delhi ignored the fact that the company was already under investigation for bribery since 1984.
“This investigation was terminated in late January 1988, following a trip by Indian Prime Minister Gandhi to Stockholm. Sweden claimed inability to track the payments through Swiss bank accounts after making a half-hearted request for Swiss assistance,” the report dated March 4, 1988, reads.
The document on the arms scandal has been heavily redacted but contains a detailed timeline of the investigations, including the fact that a national audit conducted by Stockholm indicated that $40 million was paid in commission to middlemen.
The latest revelations will give more ammo to the Bharatiya Janata Party as it looks to corner Congress in the upcoming state elections.
The aftermath of the Bofors scandal led to Gandhi losing the general elections in 1989 but investigations have lingered on, without coming to any certain conclusion.
A chargesheet was filed by the CBI in 1999, naming Swiss businessman Quattarocchi and Rajiv Gandhi and the case is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.
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