Bofors allegations anguished me, relief on exoneration: Big B

After former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom said that the involvement of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the Bofors case was planted against the actor by Indian investigators, the actor has expressed relief at being finally exonerated in the case and said no one could fathom the anguish he had endured due to the allegations.

“I speak from personal experience and personal exoneration. 25 years after the incident, I read today from one that pioneered accusation and investigation, of innocence. Of the fault that never lay before me. Of one that remained and shall perhaps remain a darkened spot, blemished beyond all recognition, but in admittance of wrong doing against me,” he wrote on his blog in a late night post .

“No 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 not. For, those that colluded in desperation still abound, without as much as a conscious twitch on their well articulated and fashionably cleaned skins.”

Speaking about the Bofors case, Lindstrom said that Indian investigators had given him a list of names to pursue the case against and one of the them was Amitabh Bachchan.

“They also told me they did not trust you entirely because you had refused to link the Bachchans to the kickbacks,”  he said in the interview.

Amitabh, who was a Congress MP, and his brother Ajitabh had been accused of taking kickbacks from the makers of the Bofors guns for the Indian army. The Bachchans had also sued a Swedish daily which alleged that they had received kickbacks and won.

Bachchan had become a Congress MP in 1984 after being persuaded by Rajiv Gandhi who was then a close friend. However, following allegations of involvement in the Bofors scam the actor has stayed away from the Congress party and politics.

A seemingly bitter Bachchan  said his detractors had only intended to misguide the nation about his involvement in the Bofors scam and he had a clean conscience the entire time.

“And would it really have been of any relevance if they had ? Of course not ! Their mission was misguidance, connived to its maximum, for issues that never ever did be of any concern in the execution of their own selfish mercenary agenda. They won momentarily. But lost ultimately. Lost position and strength and power yes, but importantly their conscience. And today that counts the most !” he said.

“Loss of one’s conscience would have to be the most defeating element in our lives. Somewhere we shall all fall victim to it. But, greatness lies with them that redeem it …. in time !! " the actor said.