The radio broadcast that disturbed Rajiv Gandhi’s peace

The radio quoted senior company sources as having said that four instalments totalling 32 million crowns were paid during the last two months of 1986, into secret accounts at the Swiss Bank Corporation.

The accounts were traced to senior figures responsible for placing India’s military orders, the radio added. Bofors is already at the centre of a political storm in Sweden after acknowledging smuggling millions of dollars worth of arms to blacklisted countries in West Asia….

NEW DELHI, April 17, 1987: The Political Affairs Committee, which met here on Friday, categorically denied the report that $5 million had been paid as pay-offs to some Indian personages for the sale of armoured guns by a Swedish firm, Bofors AB.

The prime minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, presided over the meeting, which was followed by a full meeting of the council of ministers. A report broadcast by the Swedish state radio circulated by a news agency had quoted senior company sources that an amount of $5 million had been paid in four instalments in November-December to some Indians in senior positions.

The official statement said the news item was false, baseless and mischievous. The official statement said that during negotiations with Bofors, the government had made it clear that the company should not pay any money to any person in connection with the contract. It was further stated that the government policy was not to promote any clandestine or irregular payments in any contracts. Any breach of this policy would be most severely dealt with.

The official statement said the report of pay-offs in the gun deal is one more link in the chain of denigrations and destabilisation of our political system. It was also stated that the government is determined to defeat the sinister design with all its might…..

Excerpted from reports carried in the ‘Indian Express’