NDA denied permission to question Sonia in Bofors: Swamy

Swedish ‘Deep Throat’ Sten Lindstrom, who identified himself as the whistleblower in the Bofors case after 25 years, had sought permission from the Indian Government to question Congress President Sonia Gandhi but was not allowed to, Janata Party President Subramnian Swamy said today. Swamy told Firstpost that he has in his possession a letter which Lindstrom had written to Defence Minister George Fernandes, while the NDA alliance was in power, seeking permission to question Congress party president Sonia Gandhi but the Indian government had refused to grant Lindstrom’s request. Swamy said he had new evidence in the Bofors case and he had sent 150 pages of these documents along with Lindstrom’s letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However,  the CBI recently replied saying that since the investigating agency has closed the case, Swamy should approach the court for any action on the Bofors, he said. [caption id=“attachment_287897” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Janata Party president has alleged he had new evidence in the case and would pursue the matter in court. PTI”] [/caption] Swamy also tweeted today that he would be approaching a court over the Bofors issue. “I have decided not to wait for CBI and go to the court on right away on Bofors,” he tweeted. He, however, told Firstpost that he will try to finish 2G spectrum auction scam court proceedings and other court matters before pursues the Bofors case. Former Swedish police chief Lindstrom in his interview to journalist Chitra Subramanian-Duella yesterday had revealed that he was not allowed to question Otavio Quattrocchi because of his proximity to the Gandhi family. There was reportedly conclusive evidence that Quattrocchi had taken kickbacks in the Bofors case. Interestingly, the CBI could not find any and closed the case on Quattrocchi despite the Income Tax Applellate Tribunal (ITAT) stating that Quattrocchi had allegedly received money from the Bofors, while making income tax assessments. In its plea to close the case on Quattrocchi, the CBI had said, “We have spent Rs 250 crore on the Bofors investigation so far and we tried five times to extradite Quattrocchi. But we failed to extradite him. So close the case without going into its merit.’’ The Opposition parties were quick to remind the Congress that Sonia Gandhi is protecting Quattrocchi, because he is close to the Gandhi family. The guns deal was clinched on March 24, 1986 and there is proof of Quattrocchi contacting Myles Tweedale Scott, Director of AE Services Ltd on the Bofors deal. Quattrocchi was a certified Chartered Accountant for M/s Snamprogetti, an Italian MNC working in India at the time and he had no experience of guns, gun-systems or any related defence equipments. Quattrocchi used AE Services as his front company to get kickbacks. How the kickbacks were paid? - On May 2, 1986 the Government pays Rs 296 crore as advance to the Bofors. - On September 3, 1986, Bofors remitted $ 7.3 million to AE Services’ Zurich bank account, which was opened just a fortnight before. This amount works out to be exactly three per cent of the amount of advance paid by the Indian Government to the Bofors - On September 16, 1986, AE Services moved $ 7 million to M/s Colbar Investments Ltd Inc Panama. On September 29, $ 12,390 was transferred to the same account. Almost the same US$ 7.3 miilion amount with interest was transferred on a number of occasions to other companies, including M/s Wetelsen Overseas, SA, International Investments Company in Ansbacher (CI) Ltd. Investigations abroad prove that Quattrocchi and his wife Maria Quattrocchi controlled all these accounts. - For the Colbar Investments Ltd bank account, Quattrocchi had given his address in India as “Colony East, New Delhi/India” which was a fake and non-existent address.