Indian Scams: Bofors

The Bofors scandal happened in 1980, where many were accused of receiving kickbacks from a company called Bofors AB. Large sums of money was given by Bofors AB to win a bid to supply India’s 155mm field howitzer for the armed forces. The scam was estimated to be Rs. 400 million and it rocked India as the value of the scam was large, the scam was concerned with national security and allegations were levelled even against the Prime Minister. The scam was brought out during Viswanath Pratap Singh’s tenure as defense minister. It was brought to light through investigative journalism by N Ram and Chitra Subramaniam in The Hindu and The Indian Express.

How BOFORS Happened

The Indian Army required Howitzer guns. A tender was floated in 1984. The French Sofma gun was evaluated and was found to be superior to the Bofors gun. The army needed a gun that could shoot at a range of 30km. The army chief Krishnaswamy Sundarji opted for the Sofma guns since the field trials showed that the Sofma could shoot at a range of 29.2 km as compared to the Bofors gun at a range of 21.5km. It was later on revealed that Bofors was illegally allowed to alter its bid without submitting a tender again. The Bofors scandal came to the forefront after an announcement in the Swedish radio in the year 1987. The firm AE Services was used in the scam. This company had a paid up capital of lira 100 and no employees.

Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu newspaper got hold of the private diary in which it was mentioned that “Q’s” involvement may be a problem due to the closeness with “R”. Q’s identity became clear when Chitra identified the Swiss Bank where the money from AE Services went into. It was later determined that the account was operated by Ottavio Quattrocchi. The CBI had also obtained documents but was ruled out since it was a photo copy. It was also proved that Ottavio Quattrocchi was paid 3% of the sale amount (USD 7 m) as commission through AE Services.

The key accused was Ottavio Quattrocchi. Ottavio Quattrocchi was wanted in India for criminal charges. He was a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Ottavio Quattrocchi was seen as the middleman by the CBI’s probe of the Bofors scandal, who was an Italian businessman, owned the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. 

Ottavio Quattrocchi was also close to Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. This may have led to the downfall of the Congress in the 1989 elections. The case against Ottavio Quattrocchi was strengthened when the Interpol had revealed two bank accounts with the BSI Bank AG in the name of Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria. The bank accounts had funds of EUR 3m ad USD 1m. This seemed to be a substantial amount of money for a salaried person. In 1993, when the CBI attempted to interrogate Ottavio Quattrocchi, he was allowed to leave the country since Sonia Gandhi had a deal with the late ex-Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina in 2007, by orders from the Interpol. He was later released but his passport was impounded. Since India did not have an extradition treaty with Argentina, India lost the case in the Argentine Supreme Court due to the fact that the Indian government did not provide a key court order, a basis to arrest Ottavio Quattrocchi. Currently, the Italian businessman does not feature in the list of CBI’s wanted people and the red corner notice by the Interpol.

Ottavio Quattrocchi won 60 projects for Snamprofetti. These include: 
-1981: The five Alibag (Thal Vaishnet), plants from RCF, four;Kribhco plants in Hazira, as well as the ONGC gas pipeline in Hazira.
-The National Fertilizers Limited plant in Una and two plants in Guna in 1983.
-IFFCO’s three plants in Aonla in 1984 
-The Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited’s two plants in Kakinada in 1987. 
Over a period of time Ottavio Quattrocchi became influential and was known as the man to approach for contracts with India.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BOFORS SCAM ACCUSED:

Ottavio Quattrocchi, the prime accussed now lives a good life as CBI has withdrawn the red-corner notice against him. India's law ministry under the Congress regime also unfroze his bank accounts in 2006.

Late Ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB. In 2004, he was posthumously cleared of the allegation.

SK Bhatnagar: Former defense secretary was accused of abusing his official authority. No actions taken. Died in 2001.

Win Chadha was the arms agent. He was accused of receiving part of the 64 crore kickback by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986. Died in 2001.

The Hinduja Brothers were also probed in the Bofors scam. The prosecution failed to prove their involvement in the Bofors scam. In 2005, the Delhi High Court also acquitted the Hinduja brothers Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja of all charges.

After almost 30 years when the Bofors scam was committed, no one has been punished yet. Despite glaring proofs of Quattrocchi's involvement, Congress Govt decided to unfreeze his bank accounts and remove the red-croner notice against him. Three other major accused, Rajiv Gandhi, S K Bhatnagar and Win Chadha, are already dead. Hinduja Brothers have been acquitted of all charges. All in all, no major accused are left to be caught in the scam. Despite glaring evidences of the scam being committed, CBI has failed to nail anyone.In all probability no one will ever be held guilty for one of the biggest Defense scams in Indian history.