Bofors scam: Massive cover-up on payments to Ottavio Qutattrocchi, says Chitra Subramaniam

NEW DELHI: The journalist who broke the story of Bofors scam 25 years ago has supported the assertion of former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstorm that there was a "massive, multi-country cover-up" to suppress the truth about why the Swedish armament manufacturer bribed Italian businessman Ottavio Qutattrocchi in order to sell their howitzers to India.

Chitra Subramaniam backed the assertion of Lindstorm, the whistleblower in the case, that while there was no proof to "make the leap'' in the case from Quattrocchi to the then PM Rajiv Gandhi, the question was "why would Bofors pay Quattrocchi''.

She also said that investigators should have quizzed Rajiv's wife, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, in the case.

"The issue is that had the Indian investigators sat down with the other investigators... you know... they have a language, like journalists have a language... investigators know and interpret information specially in international investigations and one of the pointers would have been to speak to Mrs Gandhi, if not at least to Mr Quattrocchi, against whom the evidence was conclusive," Subramaniam told Times Now.

"And, of course, you get to ask the question why would Bofors pay Quattrocchi and I believe that Mr Martin Ardbo (Bofors managing director) shared a lot with Mr Lindstrom," she added.

Subramaniam also said that she was under pressure to implicate Amitabh Bachchan in the bribery case but she refused.

Her interview follows Lindstrom's disclosure that he was the 'Deep Throat' who leaked documents to Subramaniam 25 years ago to prove that there had been payoffs in the Bofors gun deal. He also said in his interview to Subramaniam that the payment made to Quattrocchi by AE Services was political.

When asked if Lindstrom had actually given a clean chit to Rajiv by saying there was no evidence against him, she said the fact about there being a cover up still remained. "While it is a fact that Mr Gandhi was... there was no payment to him or to Mr (Olof) Palme. The fact remains that it was a multi-country massive cover up,'' she said.