Post date: Jul 13, 2013 9:44:14 PM
Italian businessman and main accused in the scandal of supply of Bofors artillery to the Indian Army, Ottavio Quattrocchi, dies in Italy after suffering from a heart attack.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (JULY 13, 2013) (ANI) - Italian businessman and main accused in the Bofors scam, Ottavio Quattrocchi, died in Italy after suffering from a heart attack on Saturday (July 13).
He breathed his last at Milan on Saturday and as per reports in the Italian media, his funeral is due to take place on Monday (July 15).In 1986, the Swedish arms company Bofors and the Indian government signed a $ 285 million deal for the supply of 410 units of 155mm Howitzer field guns to India.
A year later, new broke out in the Indian media that Bofors had allegedly paid kickbacks worth rupees 640 million to some of India's top politicians and government officials to get the deal passed.
The scandal affected the image of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was also accused of receiving kickbacks in the scam.
Quattrocchi was named as the main conduit who did broker the deal betweenBofors and the Indian government, and in 1993, he left the country to avoid being arrested.
The controversy caused Rajiv Gandhi to lose the 1989 elections, although his name was cleared in 2004, it could now plague his widow and current chief ofCongress party Sonia Gandhi.
The case was closed by the India's nodal probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2011 with no person ever being convicted of in the scam.
Commenting on Quattrocchi's death and the dormant status of the case, former CBI chief Joginder Singh, who headed the organisation that probed the scandal, said that slow process and red tape procedures in the investigation affected the progress of the case.
He also added here that it is now solely upto the government's will to revive thecase and give it as conclusion.
"The case was solely based on documents. His (Quattrocchi) and his wife's names are mentioned in it because money was received on these two bank accounts there (Italy). This case can remain but only if the government wants to. If the government does not want then this case has been closed and dead. It depends on the will of the government. When the Supreme Court said that the CBI is a caged bird, they were right. We have to ask in every stage from the government to inquire over anything. Till something changes this will continue. All the governments do this. It is nothing different," said Joginder Singh.
Over the closure of the case, the CBI had argued that it did not have sufficient evidence of kickbacks, and repeated attempts to extradite Quattrocchi, who was a friend of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi, had failed.
But the opposition seized a report in 2011 by India's Income Tax department that found evidence of payments made to Quattrocchi and Bofors agent Win Chadha, totalling 655 million rupees ($14.7 million).
The matter briefly heated up only to die down with the passage of time.
On these aspects, academician and political analyst Tulsi Ram said in New Delhithat the scam would not have garnered heat at all if the names of Rajiv Gandhi and his wife had not crept up.
For him, the only reason they were dragged into the case was because Sonia and Quattrocchi were both Italians.
"I think that this matter heated up because Sonia Gandhi and Quattrocchi were both from Italy. It was given a political colour and tried to prove that Sonia Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi were involved in it, or that they also received money from the brokerage of the deal. Due to this, the matter has remained hot for the last 27 years. But the investigating agency could not arrest anybody with proof in this matter. And this was then reason due to which the CBI withdrew this case quite recently," said Prof. Tulsi Ram.
The CBI had tried two unsuccessful attempts to extradite Quattrocchi to India, first inMalaysia in 2002, and then in Argentina in 2007.
The Italian businessman's death also raises questions on the revival of the Boforscase as he was the only link that was available to put into pieces the puzzles of the scam's progress.
The other accused persons in the case like middleman Chadha and Boforschairman Martin Ardbo are all dead, and the Indian industrialists Hindujas have been acquitted from the case.
In the 1980s, Quattrocchi was seen as one of the most powerful man, whose connections with the Gandhis and other influential people allowed him a clout inNew Delhi.