With Argentina rejecting India’s request for Quattrocchi’s extradition, the CBI and the UPA government have added a fresh chapter to a two-decade-long record of shameful if not deliberate negligence by successive Indian governments in investigating the pay-off. Perhaps Sten Lindstrom, Swedish police officer and principal investigator in the Bofors case, was right when he wrote in 2004 that the Bofors investigation would probably never be over. It is worth recollecting some other pertinent observations by Lindstrom to an Indian newspaper: “Pressure from India resulted in the closing down of an investigation by the Swedish prosecutor. Pressure from India also led to the Swedish National Audit Bureau sending a blanked-out version of its inquiry to India. All the relevant parts containing the critical payment details were blacked out. I had the full report and it was unreal to see politicians claim that no payments had been made on the basis of an incomplete report.” “The then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) told the Indian Parliament that neither he nor any member of his family was involved in the payoffs. That, I believe, was his first big mistake; one that gave us many clues. What he did not know then was that the Swedish government was examining a lot of documents even as he was speaking. The Gandhi name and the link to Quattrocchi were now part of the investigation.” “Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian middleman who negotiated the political payoff through A.E. Services, must be interrogated. Sonia Gandhi must be questioned. All else is detail. Key questions need answers.Why did Bofors pay Ottavio Quattrocchi? What services did his company A.E. Services offer? What are the links between Ottavio Quattrocchi and Sonia Gandhi? Who is the Gandhi trustee lawyer that Martin Ardbo (the key Bofors negotiator) met in Geneva? I raised these questions with Martin Ardbo, who told me, as he did to a few others, that the truth about the India payoffs would follow him to his grave.”Today, Martin Ardbo is dead. We are no closer to the truth.
