UK -Europe
2013-07-13 / .

Ottavio Quattrocchi dies in Italy, But the Scandal alive in Delhi

The Bofors scam accused Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi died after a heart attack in Milan. He was 72.

Quattrocchi,who is more popular in India than Italy , was accused of being the middleman in the Bofors scandal which hit the Indian politics for a long time. His


alleged proximity to Gandhi family was a talk in New Delhi for more than three decades. There was a case against him for his alleged role in the Bofors scandal and arrest warrant issued against him, but the Indian investigating agency was never able to catch him. Why the Indian investigating agency failed to arrest him with the help of Interpol is an answered question


In March 1986, a $285 million deal was signed between the Indian government and Swedish arms company Bofors for the supply of 410 155mm Howitzer field guns. A year later, news broke that Bofors had allegedly paid kickbacks worth Rs. 64 crore to top Indian politicians and officials.


The scandal hurt the reputation of Rajiv Gandhi, who was the prime minister then. The opposition parties made Bofors an issue and all the opposition members resigned from the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. And in the next general election Rajiv Gandhi was voted out of power .Quattrocchi was accused of being a conduit between Bofors and Indian politicians who allegedly received kickbacks for the deal. He left India in 1993 to avoid being arrested and never returned. After


Later case against him was written off by the C.B.IThe opposition was using the Bofors scandal as the weapon against Congress party and its chief Sonia Gandhi. It was the scandal hit Bofors weapons which was used by the Indian army in the Kargil war, was


an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took placein May to July 1999.

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