No evidence of Rajiv Gandhi taking bribe: Bofors whistleblower

April 25, 2012

no_evidenceNew Delhi, April 25: The whistleblower in the Bofors case has made his identity known after 25 long years. In an exclusive interview, former Swedish Police chief Sten Lindstrom has owned up being the 'Swedish Deep Throat' in the illegal payoffs case that once rocked both India and Sweden. Now a quarter of a century later, investigations lie buried, despite coming tantalizingly close to blowing the lid off the sensational scandal.

Lindstrom says in an interview to the journalist who had broken the story, Chitra Subramanian, that there was no evidence to suggest that former PM Rajiv Gandhi had taken bribe in the Bofors deal. However, he did not seem to have done much to prevent the cover up that followed in both India and Sweden to protect the main accused, Ottavio Quattrocchi, against whom, says Lindstrom, there was conclusive evidence.

Lindstrom has revealed that he was the person who leaked over 350 documents to the Indian journalist. He was the journalist's secret informant who operated under the pseudonym of Swedish Deep Throat.

"Many Indian institutions were tarred, innocent people were punished while the guilty got away," says Lindstrom. "The evidence against Ottavio Quattrocchi was conclusive. Through a front company called AE 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."

In the interview, appearing in a website The Hoot, Lindstrom says, "Ardbo (Bofors managing director) had also mentioned a meeting between an AE 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."

Lindstrom's 'disclosures' are known in India, examined even by courts and brushed aside, and the timing of the disclosure that he was the 'Deep Throat' for the exposes on Bofors scam is certain to trigger some speculation about his motive.

Quattrocchi was discharged in 2009 by the court which observed that the CBI, which withdrew prosecution against him, had failed to "put forward legally sustainable evidence with regard to conspiracy in the matter''.

In fact, Lindstrom goes on to suggest that the Gandhi family may have gone out of his way to protect Quattrocchi. "He (Ardbo) had written in his notes that the identity of N (Arun 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)."

Lindstrom gives a clean chit to Amitabh Bachchan and his family saying that the story against them was planted in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter by Indian investigators. "They gave me a list of names to pursue including the name of Amitabh Bachchan... During that trip to Sweden, the Indian investigators planted the Bachchan angle on DN,'' he says.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Fuel prices rose on Monday again after a days pause with oil marketing companies increasing the pump price of petrol by 5 paisa and diesel by 13 paisa per litre in Delhi.

In the national capital, petrol price on Monday stood at Rs 80.43 per litre while that of diesel at Rs 80.53 a litre.

With this increase, fuel prices have moved up on 22 of the last 23 days (with no rise on Sunday). Petrol prices, however, were unchanged for an additional day in between after the daily revision based on dynamic pricing was reinstated by OMCs.

Since the daily price revision resumed on June 7, petrol price has increased Rs 9.17 and diesel rose by Rs 11.14 in the national capital. In the other cities the magnitude of increase was similar.

During the past 23 days, the quantum of price hike gradually declined from around 60 paise raise for a few days, immediately post the resumption of daily price revision, to less than 20 paise during the past few days and now even less than 10 paisa per litre.

In a historic development, the price of diesel surged above that of petrol in the national capital during this period. It continues to remain higher even though on Saturday the quantum of petrol price hike was higher than that of diesel.

Officials in oil marketing companies said that it is hard to predict which of the two fuels will be priced higher in the Capital as the gap between the two is almost negligible. But petrol prices have shown more volatility in international markets that may take it ahead once again in coming days.

Apart from Delhi, the retail prices of petrol and diesel have followed the traditional path in other metros with petrol being priced at a premium of between Rs 5 and 8 per litre. The difference between the auto fuel prices in Delhi and other metros is because of the taxation structure.

While both petrol and diesel are at similar levels of taxes (state and centre) in Delhi, it is higher for petrol in many other Indian cities.

Globally diesel is priced a tad higher than petrol. In India too, the base price of diesel is slightly higher than petrol but taxation at central and state levels changed the complexion of retail prices.

If the price of petroleum products and crude hold their positions in global markets, then petrol and diesel prices rise may stop for a longer period and we may even see marginal fall in prices.

Fuel prices have been increasing since June 7 when oil companies began the daily price revision mechanism after a hiatus of 82 days during the lockdown.

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News Network
March 19,2020

New Delhi, Mar 19: Hit hard by coronavirus, budget carrier IndiGo today announced that it will cut salaries of senior employees. IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta, who will himself take a 25% cut in salary, said senior vice presidents and above are taking a 20% pay cut while vice presidents and cockpit crew are taking a 15% pay cut.

With precipitous drop in revenues, the very survival of airline industry is now at stake, Dutta said while announcing the pay cut. "We have to pay careful attention to our cash flow so that we do not run out of cash," Dutta said adding that he knew how hard it was for families to take a cut in "take-home pay".

"With a great deal of reluctance and a deep sense of regret, we are therefore instituting pay cuts for all employees, excluding Bands A and B, starting April 1, 2020," the chief executive officer said. Band A and B are the lowest brackets in salary class, where most of the employees are.

IndiGo's flight operations chief Ashim Mitra had written an email to pilots this morning saying that the economic environment has deteriorated significantly and no airline is insulated from this severe downturn.

"It has become a necessity to initiate some tough calls and we are working on a string of measures that will be shared and implemented over the next few days and weeks," Mitra said.

With countries sealing their borders partially or fully across the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, aviation sector has been hit extremely hard as most airlines globally have drastically curtailed their flight operations.

Another budget airline GoAir has already terminated contracts of expat pilots amid curtailed operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing "unprecedented" decline in air travel, the budget carrier announced it was suspending international operations and offering leave without pay programme to its staff on a rotational basis.

Government-owned Air India may also cut salary of employees by 5% amid its growing financial woes particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has nearly grounded its entire international operations. The reduction will be across the board, according to a PTI report.

The loss-making airline, which is in the process of a second attempt of privatization after failing to get a single buyer nearly two years ago, has already taken some steps such as reduced flying allowances to cabin crew besides withdrawing entertainment allowance to executive pilots, among others.

“Air India is considering a 5 per cent pay cut to its employees as it faces huge financial crisis due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has brought almost its entire international operations save the US, Canada and a few other markets, to the ground," a source told news agency.

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Agencies
January 22,2020

Kochi, Jan 22: The Left front government in Kerala on Monday decided to inform the Centre it would not cooperate with the updation of the NPR, saying there were fears among the public about the process and it has the "Constitutional responsibility" to alleviate them and ensure law and order.

A special cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, decided to inform the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Union Home Ministry that it was unable to cooperate with anything with regard to the updation of the NPR.

"The decision was taken as it was the Constitutional responsibility of the government to alleviate the fears of general public and ensure law and order situation in the state," a Chief Minister's Office release said.

However, the state would fully cooperate with the census procedures, it said.

The LDF government, which has been on a warpath against the Centre over the Citizenship Amendment Act, has last month stayed all activities related to updation of NPR, considering 'apprehensions' of public that it would lead to NRC in the wake of the controversial CAA.

"As the NPR is a process that leads to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), there is a sense of fear among the people that its implementation could lead to widespread insecurity", the CMO release said on Monday.

The experience of the state which had already compiled the NRC was an example for this, it added, in apparent reference to Assam.

Kerala had already stopped all procedures regarding the NPR updation, the release said adding there was also a report of the state police that the if the government went ahead with the procedures, it would adversely impact the law and order situation.

The district collectors have also informed the government that the Census procedures would be affected if the updation of the NPR was done along with it, the CMO release said.

The CPI(M)-led LDF government had recently convened a meeting of political parties and socio-religious organisations here on December 29 in the wake of the concerns among people in various stratas of the society, it said.

A special assembly session was convened and a resolution was passed requesting the Centre not to implement the CAA and the government had also approached the apex court against the law, it added.

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