Bofors resurrected, Congress again on mat over Quattrocchi

The sensational disclosures by the original whistleblower of the bribery scam of the late 1980s gave fresh ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP and the Left with both demanding an explanation from the government The BJP also decided to pin the government down in parliament Then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India 155 mm field howitzers The Rs64 crore approx 12 million scandal bigger than any that India had seen before led to the defeat of the Congress in the November 1989 elections On Wednesday the issue was resurrected In an interview to website thehootorg Lindstrom said there was no evidence to show that Gandhi had taken a bribe in the Rs1500 crore 285 million gun deal quotBut he watched the massive coverup in India and Sweden and did nothing Many Indian institutions were tarred innocent people were punished while the guilty got awayquot he said The evidence against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi quotwas conclusivequot he said quotNobody in Sweden or Switzerland was allowed to interrogate himquot u00a0 Lindstrom also said that the case against actor and then Congress MP Amitabh Bachchan and his family was planted in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter by Indian investigatorsu00a0 Bachchan said Wednesday he was happy to be cleared of the Bofors allegations but was quotpainedquot this had happened after 25 yearsu00a0Speaking to reporters in Mumbai Bachchan said that he had quotlived with humiliation and loss of reputationquot all these years In another damning revelation Lindstrom said they had barely met Indian investigators quotCan you imagine a situation where no one from India met the real investigators of the gun dealquot he asked The interview gave the opposition the leverage it was looking for against the Congressled United Progressive Alliance regime The BJP again alleged that Quattrocchi was close to the Gandhi family and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sought the government39s apology for letting him go freeu00a0 quotThe entire government of late Rajiv Gandhi was out to secure Ottavio Quattrocchi What was his link with the government and with the Gandhi family that the entire government was there to bail him out it is a serious matterquot said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasadu00a0quotThe role of Quattrocchi should be probed by an independent agency and so should be the role of the CBI officials who said there was no evidence against himquot said Prasadu00a0 The Communist Party of India CPI agreed quotThe government and the CBI cannot ignore this revelation They have to come forward with a response on how Quattrocchi was allowed or could go scotfree or could have a safe passage from Indiaquot said CPI leader D Raja The Congress retorted that parties who had misled the nation on the issue should apologise instead Accusing the opposition of making quotwild allegationsquot against Gandhi union Law Minister Salman Khurshid said quotIt is a matter of regret that without having any proof such serious charges were levelled The same people are not ready to feel sorry even today They should apologise before the publicquot He added that it was a closed case and there was no need to reopen it The Bachchans Bollywood39s first family said they had been vindicatedu00a0quotWe knew the truth 25 years back but justice takes its own time and our stand has been vindicatedquot said Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchanu00a0 Her husband megastar Amitabh who was an MP at the time said the accusations had led to years of quotanguish of petulant blamequot quotNo one shall be able to understand or even remotely fathom the hours and days and months and years of the anguish of petulant blame that I had to go through But will it really interest another No it shall notquot Amitabh who was MP at the time wrote on his blog bigbbigaddacom