Two months later, India paid the first tranche of 20 per cent of the contract sum and Bofors, as per its deal, transferred US $7.343 million to the AE Services account in Nordfinanz Bank, Zurich. The investigators found that AE Services in turn had transferred this money to the account of Colbar Investments operated by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria. The complicity of Quattrocchi, his mentors and benefactors is further established by another bizarre fact. After the scandal broke in April 1987 and the Rajiv Gandhi Government came under a cloud, AE Services wrote to Bofors and unilaterally declared that it did not want commission on the remaining 80 per cent of the contractual value that India was to pay the company. Quattrocchi’s company therefore voluntarily surrendered US$29 million that was due to it from Bofors.

The facts about the Bofors-Quattrocchi contract were fully corroborated by our Income Tax Appellate Tribunal a year ago. It noted that Quattrocchi remained in India from February 28, 1965 to July 29, 1993, except for a brief interval from March 4, 1966 to June 12, 1968. Based on bank documents obtained from Switzerland by Indian authorities, the tribunal concluded that after India paid Bofors SEK1,682,132,196.80 (Rs 2,9615.00 lakh), equivalent to 20 per cent of the contract value, on May 2, 1986, Bofors remitted a sum of SEK50,463,966.00 (equivalent to US $7,343,941.98), on September 03, 1986, to account number 18051-53 of M/s AE Services Limited at Nordfinanz Bank, Zurich. The amount paid to AE Services worked out to exactly three per cent of the advance paid. Thereafter, the ITAT provided details of the money trail and said, while opening another account in the Union Bank of Switzerland, Geneva, Quattrocchi had mentioned his address in India as “Colony East, New Delhi / India”, “which was a fake and non-existent address”.

How did Quattrocchi, an Italian, manage to swing the deal before the expiry of the deadline? Who helped him achieve this extraordinary feat? Why did he forego further payments? These questions have been nagging Indians ever since the scandal broke in 1987.

After the UPA came to power in 2004, the Manmohan Singh Government ensured that the Italian businessman was not extradited to India after his arrest in Argentina. Thereafter, it rendered two other extraordinary services to the Nehru-Gandhi family. The Italian businessman’s bank account in UK had been frozen after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government sent a request to London. The UPA regime stealthily informed Britain that India had no objection to de-freezing Quattrocchi’s account. UK obliged and Quattrocchi immediately cleaned out this account. Thereafter, the UPA Government directed the CBI to make an application before a court in Delhi to withdraw the criminal case of bribery against Quattrocchi.

Q- Quarter century later, any reflections on why Rajiv Gandhi’s name came up?
A– There was no evidence that he had received any bribe. But he watched the massive cover-up in India and Sweden and did nothing. Many Indian institutions were tarred, innocent people were punished while the guilty got away. The evidence against Ottavio Quattrrocchi was conclusive. Through a front company called A.E. Services, bribes paid by Bofors landed in Quattrocchi’s account which he subsequently cleaned out because India said there was no evidence linking him to the Bofors deal. Nobody in Sweden or Switzerland was allowed to interrogate him.
Ardbo was terrified about this fact becoming public. He had hidden it even from his own marketing director Hans Ekblom who said marketing middlemen had a role, but not political payments. Ardbo was also concerned about the role of Arun Nehru who had told Bofors in 1985 that his name and Rajiv Gandhi’s name should not appear anywhere. As the stories began to appear, Ardbo knew what I knew. He had written in his notes that the identity of N (Nehru) becoming public was a minor concern but at no cost could the identity of Q (Quattrocchi) be revealed because of his closeness to R (Rajiv Gandhi). He had also mentioned a meeting between an A.E. Services official and a Gandhi trustee lawyer in Geneva. This was a political payment. These payments are made when the deal has to be inked and all the numbers are on the table. I spent long-hours interrogating Ardbo. He told me Nehru was the eminence grise but not much more.