BOFORS SCANDAL

______________(According to Wikipedia)_____________________
The Bofors
scandal was
a
major political
scandal that
occurred
between Sweden and India during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian
National Congress (Congress party) politicians and implicating the Indian prime
minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Swedish and Indian
governments who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB (Bofors
AB were a Swedish arms manufacturing company. The name has been associated
with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years) for
winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer.
The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between the
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. It was
the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects
was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed
flouting of rules and bypassing of institutions.
The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that Sweden and 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 640
million (US$9.5 million) in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defence
officials.
The case came into light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence
minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism tipped off by
a Reuters news revelation on Swedish radio, followed up 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 with her, published in The Hoot in April 2012 on the 25th
anniversary of the revelations, Sten Lindstrom, former chief of Swedish police,

discussed why he leaked the documents to her and the role of whistle-blowers in a
democracy.
______________(According to Other Sources)_____________________

Firstly
'Bofors'
is
an
Swedish
arms
manufacturing
company.
Long back in 1986 India's defence ministry bought Howitzers for its army's
artillery units from this manufacturer for Rs. 1,500 crore.
This weapon system is operated by a 6 member crew and can fire at the rate of 10
rounds per minute with a range of 25-30 km.
These howitzers were also used in 1999 kargil conflict with pakistan and proved to
be efficient with great accuracy.
About Scandal:
This shitty company paid kickbacks to top Indian politicians, including the
then PM Rajiv Gandhi, for selling artillery guns to the Indian Army. They
just wanted to secure the deal with Govt of India.
This transaction happened through an Italian businessman Ottavio
Quattrrocchi. I'm stressing that it is ITALY, from where our scams aunty
Sonia Gandhi landed from.
All this awesome work was further followed up by The Hindu's
correspondent, a WOMAN named Chitra. It was revealed that Rs 65 crore
was paid to get the deal done.

 It is one of the main reasons for which Rajiv Gandhi's Congress party was
voted out of power in the 1989 general elections.
In 1997, CBI set up a special investigation team and filed cases against Rajiv
Gandhi, Quattrocchi, Chadha, defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar, former
Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and the Bofors company.
Later this case suffered so many setbacks and then in 2004, it was cleared by
the Delhi High Court that Rajiv Gandhi is totally awesome. That's how the
case lost its steam.
In 2009 again Quattrocchi proved himself that he was totally awesome than
Rajiv Gandhi and Supreme Court informed that all the cases were dropped
and the case was closed.

This case returned to haunt the Congress when Swedish police chief Sten
Lindstrom revealed that he was the Swedish Deep Throat, a key source of
journalist Chitra but there is no evidence to show that late Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi had taken a bribe in the Bofors deal and the case is still going on....
Impact
Proposals of the Indian Army to buy at least four types of guns are still stuck at
various stages of procurement just because of this scam reducing the orders of the
guns even though the army requires it.

PARTIES INVOLVED
Sweden and India
WHISTLE BLOWER
Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister, and was revealed
through investigative journalism tipped off by a Reuters news revelation on
Swedish radio, followed up by a team led by N. Ram of the newspaper The
Hindu.
CHITRA SUBRAMANIAM

WHAT ACTIONS WERE TAKEN TO RECTIFY THE PROBLEM

In 1997, CBI set up a special investigation team and filed cases against Rajiv
Gandhi, Quattrocchi, Chadha, defence secretary S.K. Bhatnagar, former Bofors
chief Martin Ardbo and the Bofors company.