Bofors scam will not be forgotten after Quattrocchi's death: BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said that the Congress party should not be under the impression that the death of Ottavio Quattrocchi, the main accused in the Bofors, will cover the scam.

Speaking to mediapersons here, BJP spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri said that the Bofors scam is a big scar on the political face of the country.

"Congress should not have this misconception that this issue is over because this case is a scar on the face of political history of India. And as far as Quattrocchi is concerned, the CBI is yet to give him a clean chit till date." he said.

Quattrocchi allegedly acted as a conduit in the scam which caused heavy damage to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who lost the 1989 elections. The Italian businessman left the country in 1993 to avoid being arrested.

The case was closed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2011 with no person ever being convicted of in the scam.

"He (Quattrocchi) never said that he did not take any money in the Bofors scam. He always maintained that he was an intermediary and I got this deal done and I was paid for it. Now the question arises that for whom did Quattrocchi take the money? And in this matter the court has decided that he did not have any connection with the Gandhi family and I don't want to contest the court's judgment," said Prem Shankar Jha, political analyst.

The Italian businessman and one of the prime accused in the scam, Ottavio Quattrocchi, died of a heart attack on Saturday in Milan, Italy. Local media reports said that his funeral will take place on Monday.

It maybe recalled that Quattrocchi represented Italian petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti and was accused of being one of the middleman in the Bofors scandal. He was also said to be close to the Nehru- Gandhi family, and this fuelled speculation about his rise as a power broker between New Delhi and international businesses.

The Bofors scam relates to a March 1986 deal between the Indian Government and Swedish arms company Bofors for the supply of 410 155mm Howitzer field guns worth about 285 to 286 million dollars.

A year later, news broke that Bofors had allegedly paid kickbacks worth Rs. 64 crore to top Indian politicians and officials to secure the deal.