The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Congress politicians

and implicating the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several others who 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. The Swedish company paid 64 crore (US$11.65 million) in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defense officials. The case came into light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism by a team led by N. Ram of the newspaper The Hindu. The journalist who secured the over 350 documents that detailed the payoffs was Chitra Subramaniam reporting for The Hindu. Later the articles were published in The Indian Express and The Statesman when The Hindu stopped publishing stories about the Bofors scandal under immense government pressure and Chitra Subramaniam moved to the two newspapers. In an interview to her published in The Hoot in April 2012 on the 25th anniverssary of the revelations Sten Lindstrom, former chief of Swedish police discussd why he leaked the documents to her and the role of whistle-blowers in a democracy. Chronology of Bofors scam:The Bofors gun deal, signed between the Indian government and the now defunct Swedish arms company AB Bofors 21 years ago, has once again come to haunt the government and politics of this country. Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian businessman accused of being a conduit in the bribes that were alleged to have been paid to facilitate the deal, was detained in Argentina and then subsequently released on bail, much to the embarrassment of Indian investigators who have been on his trail. Following is the chronology of events in the Bofors howitzer payoff scandal: March 24, 1986: A $1.4 billion contract between the Indian government and Swedish Arms Company AB Bofors signed for supply of over 400 155mm howitzers. April 16, 1987: Swedish Radio claims Bofors paid kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defence officials to secure the deal. April 20, 1987: Then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assures the Lok Sabha that neither was any middleman involved in the deal nor was kickbacks paid. August 6, 1987: Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up under B. Shankaranand to probe into allegations of kickbacks. February 1988: Indian investigators visit Sweden. July 18, 1989: JPC report presented to parliament.

November 1989: Rajiv Gandhi loses power as Congress defeated in general elections. December 26, 1989: Then Prime Minister V.P. Singh's government bars Bofors from entering into any defense contract with India. January 22, 1990: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registers complaint in the case. January 26, 1990: Swiss authorities freeze bank accounts of Svenska and AE Services, who allegedly received unauthorized commissions for the deal. February 17, 1992: Journalist Bo Anderson's sensational report on the Bofors payoffs case published. December 1992: Supreme Court reverses a Delhi High Court decision quashing the complaint in the case. February 9, 1993: Supreme Court rejects former Bofors agent Win Chadha's plea for quashing the letters rogatory sent by the trial court to its counterpart in Sweden seeking assistance in the case. July 12, 1993: Swiss federal court rules that India was entitled to Swiss bank documents pertaining to the kickbacks. July 29/30 1993: Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was representing Italian fertilizer firm Snam Progetti for several years, leaves India to avoid arrest warrant the CBI was seeking. January 21, 1997: After four years of legal wrangles, secret documents running into over 500 pages given to Indian authorities at a public ceremony in Berne. January 30, 1997: CBI constitutes special investigation team for the case. February 10, 1997: CBI questions ex-army chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji. February 12, 1997: Letters rogatory issued to Malaysia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeking arrest of Quattrocchi and Win Chadha. May 1998: Delhi High Court rejects Quattrocchi's plea for quashing of the 'red corner' notice issued by Interpol at the request of CBI. October 22, 1999: CBI files first chargesheet naming Win Chadha, Quattrocchi, former Indian defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar, former Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and Bofors Company. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's name figured as "an accused not sent for trial" as he was killed in 1991.

November 7, 1999: Trial court issues arrest warrants against Quattrocchi, while summoning other four accused. December 13, 1999: CBI team goes to Malaysia to seek extradition of Quattrocchi; fails in its efforts. Early 2000: Quattrocchi approaches the Supreme Court for quashing of arrest warrant against him. Court asks him to appear before CBI for interrogation while protecting him from being arrested. Quattrocchi refuses to accept the order, saying his counsel misled the court. March 18, 2000: Chadha comes to India to face trial. July 29, 2000: Trial court issues "open non-bailable arrest warrants" against Ardbo. September 4, 2000: Chadha moves Supreme Court for permission to go to Dubai for treatment. Supreme Court rejects plea a week later. September 29, 2000: Hindujas issue statement in London saying funds received by them from Bofors had no connection with the gun deal. October 9, 2000: CBI files supplementary chargesheet naming Hinduja brothers as accused in the Bofors gun deal. December 20, 2000: Quattrocchi arrested in Malaysia, gets bail but is asked to stay within the country. August 6, 2001: Former defence secretary Bhatnagar dies of cancer. October 24, 2001: Win Chadha dies of heart attack at his New Delhi residence. November 15, 2002: Hinduja brothers formally charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption. December 2, 2002: Malaysian court denies India's request for Quattrocchi's extradition. July 28, 2003: Acting on India's request, Britain freezes Quattrocchi's bank accounts. January 4, 2004: Swiss authorities agree to consider CBI's request for providing Quattrocchi's bank details. February 4, 2004: Delhi High Court clears Rajiv Gandhi of involvement in the Bofors kickbacks scandal. May 31, 2005: Delhi High Court clears Hindujas of involvement in the scandal.

Dec 31, 2005: The CBI tells Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), London, that it has not been able to link the money in two accounts of Quattrocchi with the Bofors kickbacks Jan 7, 2006: Two accounts of Quattrocchi in London banks containing 3 million euros and $1 million were defreezed after then additional solicitor general B. Dutta met the CPS lawyers. Feb 6, 2007: Quattrocchi detained at Iguazu international airport on an Interpol lookout notice. Feb 13, 2007: CBI writes to Ministry of External Affairs for Argentinean Extradition Act and tells Interpol Buenos Aires that documentation being prepared for extradition proceedings. Feb 24, 2007: Fresh warrant of arrest against Quattrocchi obtained from Delhi court Feb 26, 2007: Quattrochhi released on bail with condition that he does not leave Argentina. Feb 28, 2007: Two-member CBI team to leave for Argentina.

Detail Story of the scam: The Quattrocchi case is an embarrassment for the Government of India... The court says we do not have a strong case. It is not Antonia Maino (aka Sonia) Gandhi defending her Italian friend. It is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as if she had appointed him as the advocate to plead for Q. Its not a good reflection on the Indian legal system, says the PM moved by compassion for Q, that we harass people while the world says we have no case. Singh, who was with the South Commission on a comfortable salary and perks when the Bofors scam rocked the country, seems totally unaware of the facts of the Bofors scam. Here is a short trailer of the scam. The Bofors scam pay-off for Indias gun purchase deal with Sweden broke out in 1987. A third of the Indians living today were not yet born then; and a fourth of the Indians living then are no more alive today. So some history needs to be recalled here. First, the Bofors payoff was exposed by the media and the Rajiv government went all out to suppress the exposure. Including the payoff of $36.5 million to Q, the Bofors deal contemplated three streams of payoff totalling $250 million. Persistent investigations by the media and the CBI brought out the involvement of Q in the gun deal. The closeness of Q and his wife Maria to Sonia family was always well known. The Sonia and Maria families spent their weekends and annual holidays together. They left ones children in the custody of the other when going out of station. So intense was their relationship. The media found that some $7.3 million from Bofors AB had found its way into Qs secret bank accounts. Facts began to tumble out testifying that it was fee to Q for swinging the $1.2 billion gun deal for the Swedish gun maker.

Here is how Q got the deal for Bofors. The Rajiv Gandhi government could not decide for a long time what gun to buy the British, Austrian or Swedish. The two brokers engaged by Bofors could not expedite the deal. Suddenly, 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, dont 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 CBIs request. British courts later repeatedly turned down Quattrocchis several appeals to de-freeze the accounts. But, on December 22, 2005, the Congressled UPA government U-turned. H R Bharadwaj, the law minister, got the additional solicitor general of India, B Dutta, to go to London to do the dirty job of releasing the amounts.