NEW DELHI: India has sent a judicial request to the United States, seeking crucial information in connection with the Rs 64-crore Bofors case, potentially marking the revival of the probe into the scandal related to the purchase of 155mm field artillery guns from Sweden under the Congress govt led by Rajiv Gandhi in the late 1980s.
The Central Bureau of Investigation sent a letter rogatory, issued by a special court, to the US justice department a few days ago, sources told TOI. The agency has sought case details which Michael Hershman, the head of US-based private detective firm Fairfax, had regarding the kickbacks that Swedish arms manufacturer A B Bofors allegedly paid to bag the order for 400 howitzers from India.
In 2017, Hershman had claimed that then PM Rajiv Gandhi was “furious” when he had found a Swiss bank account ‘Mont Blanc’, where the bribe money from Bofors had allegedly been parked. Hershman had also claimed that the then govt had sabotaged his probe.
The agency had first approached the court in Delhi in October, informing it about their plan to seek details from the US authorities. The move was prompted by Hershman, who shot into prominence in political circles because of his involvement with the Bofors case, agreeing to cooperate with Indian agencies.
Role of Q in Bofors: Questions still linger
A letter rogatory is a formal, written request issued by a court in one country to a court in another country, seeking assistance in gathering evidence or facilitating the probe and prosecution of a criminal case.
The Bofors scam, exposed by Swedish radio, was a big factor in Rajiv Gandhi’s defeat in the 1989 elections. Although the Delhi high court quashed the bribery charge against the former PM in 2004, questions related to the scam have lingered. These concern the role of Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who enjoyed formidable clout under the Rajiv Gandhi govt, in the bribery affair, and who was allowed to leave the country for Malaysia when he was under investigation, as well as a letter Madhavsinh Solanki, foreign minister in the then Congress govt, had delivered in 1992 to his Swiss counterpart, asking him to go slow on New Delhi’s request for information on the case.
The attention on Quattrocchi – who had a remarkably successful run as the representative of Italian fertiliser giant Snamprogetti – was renewed when the UPA govt decided not to contest the release of millions of dollars that the alleged middleman had in one of his bank accounts in the UK. In 1987, the Swedish public broadcaster had stunned India and Sweden alike by disclosing payment of bribes in the Howitzer deal.
CBI had registered the case in 1990 and later filed chargesheets in 1999 and 2000. After discharging Rajiv Gandhi, a special court dropped all charges against the remaining accused, including the Hinduja brothers. Quattrocchi was discharged in 2011 when a court allowed the CBI’s prayer to withdraw prosecution against him.