The Bofors Scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; the then Prime Minister Indhira Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before, and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Bofors is an iron works, cannon maker, and defence industry located in Karlskoga, Sweden. ... Loading a WW1 British 15 in (381 mm) howitzer A howitzer or hauwitzer is a type of field artillery. ... Indian National Congress (also known as the Congress Party or Congress (I), abbreviated INC) is a major political party in India. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The case came to light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister, and was fueled by very sharp investigative journalism by Chitra Subramaniam of the newspapers The Hindu and Indian Express. Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Hindi: , born 25 June 1931) was the tenth Prime Minister of the Republic of India. ... For the article regarding followers of Hinduism, please see Hindu The Hindu is a leading English-language newspaper in India, with its largest base of circulation in south India. ... The Indian Express is an Indian newspaper started by Ram Nath Goenka, and is published from New Delhi. ...

The name of the middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was closeness to the family of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the '80s between big business and the Indian government. Ottavio Quattrocchi is an Italian businessman accused of involvement in the Bofors Scandal, the 1980s bribery scandal involving the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors and prominent Indian politicians, which led to the defeat of the Congress Party in the elections 1989. ...

Even while the case was being investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1997, the Swiss banks released some 500 documents after years of legal wrangling and the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a case against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, also naming Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary and a number of others. Several attempts to extradite Quattrocchi failed. The CBI emblem. ...

Meanwhile February 5, 2004 the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others, but the case is still being tried on charges of cheating, causing wrongful loss to the Government, etc. Win Chadha also passed away. February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

On May 31, 2005, the High court of Delhi dismissed the Bofors case allegations against the British business brothers, Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja. May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hinduja brothers — Srichand (born 28 November 1935), Gopichand (born 29 February 1940) and Prakash — are an Indian business family. ...

On January 11, 2006 the high Court in London ordered the defreezing of the two British bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi on the grounds of insufficient evidence to link these accounts to the Bofors payoff. The two accounts, containing € 3 million and $1 million, had been frozen in 2003 by a high court order by request of the Indian government (when the (now) opposition party BJP was in power). On January 16, the Indian Supreme Court directed the Indian government to ensure that Ottavio Quattrocchi did not withdraw money from the two bank accounts in London. The CBI (Central Bureau Of Investigation), the Indian Federal law enforcement agency, on January 23, 2006 admitted that roughly Rs 21 crore, about USD $4.6 million, in the two accounts have already been withdrawn. The British Government released the funds based on a request by the Indian Government. January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... BJP could mean one of Indias largest political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party British Journal of Photography British Journal of Psychiatry British Journal of Pharmocology This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... A crore is a unit in the Indian numbering system, still widely used in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. ...

However, on January 16, 2006, CBI claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme court that they were still pursuing extradition orders for Quattrocchi. January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

• Subramaniam, Chitra (1997). India is For Sale. New Delhi: UBS Publishers' Distributors Ltd.. 
• Bofors: The Smoking Gun
• Just who is Ottavio Quattrocchi?
• Bofors: What India does not know