Bofors: kickback allegations in the howitzer deal

What happened

In March 1986 the Government of India signed a ₹1,437 crore contract with the Swedish company AB Bofors for 400 field howitzers. On 16 April 1987, Swedish Radio reported that Bofors had paid illegal commissions to Indian politicians and defence officials to secure the deal — payments later traced through investigative reporting, notably by journalist Chitra Subramaniam for The Hindu, to Swiss bank accounts.

What the record shows

The alleged kickbacks amounted to roughly ₹64 crore. The scandal dominated national politics, and the Congress government lost the 1989 general election with Bofors as a central issue. The CBI registered a case in 1990; charge sheets named middlemen including Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman with access to the Prime Minister’s circle, who left India in 1993 and was never brought to trial despite extradition attempts.

Where it stands

No person was ever convicted. The Delhi High Court quashed charges against Rajiv Gandhi (posthumously) in 2004 for lack of evidence, and proceedings against Quattrocchi were withdrawn in 2011. The howitzers themselves performed well in the 1999 Kargil war. The case stands as an allegation that was never judicially resolved — and as a decades-long record of investigative failure.