Bofors scandal

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The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal , the Indian also, and to a lesser extent Swedish domestic policy from 1987 employed.

In 1986, during the tenure of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi , son of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , the Indian Ministry of Defense planned to purchase 410 155mm Haubit FH-77B field howitzers from Swedish armaments manufacturer Bofors AB for a total of 1.4 billion U.S. dollar. The scandal started on April 16, 1987 with a radio broadcast in Sweden. Reports the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter According Bofors is intended to 40 million US dollars as a " kickback - commissions " ( bribes ) are paid to Indian figures about Swiss bank accounts to its French competitors to beat.

Effects and aftermath

The scandal surpassed all previous Indian corruption scandals by far, and in 1989 led directly to the election defeat of the ruling Indian Congress Party , in which the Nehru / Gandhi family had dominated the fate of the country since Indian independence. After Rajiv Gandhi left the government, his personal protection was reduced. He was murdered on May 21, 1991. In 1993, the Swiss authorities sent the results of their investigations into Swiss banks to the Indian government. On February 5, 2004, the Delhi High Court acquitted Rajiv Gandhi post mortem of any involvement in the scandal.

The scandal is linked to the name of the Italian representative of the Snamprogetti engineering and construction company from Milan , Ottavio Quattrocchi , who was friends with the Gandhi family. Rajiv Gandhi's widow Sonia is a native of Italy. On July 29, 1993, Quattrocchi left India to settle in Malaysia . The Delhi court wanted to question him about the Bofors scandal. Therefore it put India on the wanted list of Interpol and called on Malaysia's extradition . Quattrocchi has been accused of having used his proximity to members of the government, including Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to initiate an anti-aircraft gun arms deal for the benefit of Bofors.

On May 31, 2005, the Indian Supreme Court dropped all previous charges against the Indian-born brothers Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja with British passports. The UK High Court ordered the release of Quattrocchi's accounts with two UK banks for lack of evidence linking these accounts to the Bofors bribe payments. The accounts worth three million euros or one million US dollars had been frozen since 2003 by order of the High Court. The Indian Supreme Court asked the Indian Government on January 16, 2006 to ensure that Quattrocchi could not withdraw his money from the two UK accounts. But the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is responsible for corruption investigations and economic crime in India , admitted on January 23 that 210 million rupees had already been withdrawn from the accounts.

The Bofors scandal had far-reaching political consequences. The Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was very popular when he took office, rapidly lost his reputation among the Indian public. The former finance minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh , who eventually left the Congress party and, together with other opposition groups, founded a new party, the Janata Dal , became a main critic in his own party . The Congress Party suffered heavy losses in the 1989 general election . Rajiv Gandhi lost his post as Prime Minister and VP Singh succeeded him.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ndtv.com: Timeline of Bofors scandal (English), accessed on March 15, 2011