BJP questions Sonia Gandhi over hesitation to probe Bofors scam

New Delhi, Apr 27 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised the Congress President Sonia Gandhi over the UPA-II Government's ' hesitation' to re-investigate the 1985-86 Bofors scam.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Gandhi to prove her government's commitment to combat corruption by taking action in the wake of the latest developments related to the scam.

"I want to ask the question from Ms. Sonia Gandhi. Soniaji you have repeatedly said that your government will conduct a sincere probe on corruption. You are being tested against the bench mark of your own assurances to the nation," said Prasad on Thursday.

He further expressed his doubts over reports submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that gave a clean chit to Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.

"If there are conclusive evidences against Quattrocchi, and if the CBI has knowingly turned a blind eye towards the evidences leading to closure of the case, then why isn't your government ready for a transparent investigation? Why shouldn't the truth be exposed? What kind of eminent politician is Quattrocchi that his image is linked with the pride of this country, the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi? This is the question we want to raise," said Prasad.

Demanding a probe into the role of CBI officials who submitted the closure report on the scam, Prasad said: "All those officials of the CBI should also be probed who submitted a collusive report giving a clean chit to Quattrocchi. If this is not done, then it would cause me a lot of pain, and with great responsibility, I must say that 'Congress and cover up' are integral to each other."

In an interview that appears on the website hoot.org, former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom has owned up to being the person (Sweden's Deep Throat) who leaked over 350 documents to Indian journalist Chitra Subramanian, who broke the story.

Lindstrom has revealed that there was no evidence to suggest that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had taken bribe in the Bofors deal.

However, he did not seem to have done much to prevent the cover up that followed in both India and Sweden to protect main accused Quattrocchi, against whom, says Lindstrom, there was conclusive evidence.

The Bofors case dates back to 1986, when Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a 15 billion dollar contract to supply Howitzer Guns to India. A year later, Swiss media began reporting that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials. (ANI)