SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK
That was how The Hindu a national news paper of repute whose family split occured with the infamous BOFORS Scandal, used to describe the state of affairs on Bofors investigation. Last week CBI sought to withdraw the Red Corner Notice issued to Interpol to track down Mr.Ottavio Quotrrochi a suspected beneficiary of Kickbacks inthe Bofors scandal amounting to Rs.64 crores. CBI said that it was withdrawing the RCN since it was advised by the Attorney General Milan Banerjee. Indian Express which broke the story, claimed that AG has called for withdrawl of RCN since no appeal was filed by the investigating agency against the acquittal awarded by Delhi High court. The paper claimed that the same AG only advised the investigating agency not to go in for appeal.
when the scandal surfaced due to a revelation by a swedish private radio the then PM Rajiv assured that neither he nor any members of his family took kickbacks and assured the house that he and his Swedish counterpart Olaf Palme have ensured that there are no middlemen. however the ghost of Bofors refused to die even after assacination of Rajiv. The Delhi Highcourt which acquitted Rajiv named as accused not sent for trial by Arun Jaitley observing that vast sums of money has been spent on this investigation which was worthless. The media could not digest this. Even N Ram who has buried the hatchet with the Gandhi family because he is now an ardent admirer of Rajiv Gandhi's widow now calls the step an arrogant display of misuse of official power.
Many scandals have surfaced since Bofors including Spectrum Scandal of Raja but Bofors has a fond place amongst the investigative journalists of India. That includes Arun shourie who himself was under cloud for his sale of Centaur Hotel to an estranged Tata Hotel Employee Ajit Kekkar who made a profit later by selling it to someone else.
Commissions are an accepted way of paying for middlemen. Whether you buy a house, property or even rent a property we used to pay middlemen some commission. The claim that to pay commission to middlemen in a defence deal is a crime is bullshit. This has always been happening. Ramjeth Malani in his brighter years posed 10 questions to Rajiv. He even averred that the account LOTUS in Swiss Bank is Rajiv's own because Rajiv in hindi means Lotus. AE Services, the front company of Mr. Q is the prime suspect now. But the jury is not out. The supreme Court is still monitoring the case and it remains to be seen as to whether CBI is right in withdrawing RCN. Let us wait for it.
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