Citing a written submission made by Jain on March 13, 1995, B R Lall, former joint director of CBI, who was supervising the case then, said, "Jain and Quattrocchi have taken the contract in partnership and have close connection with high and mighty people. The hawala dealer had in his submission to the CBI said that he used to take three per cent of the project cost as commission while seven per cent of the total amount as kickbacks were received by Quattrocchi. The duo were getting 10 per cent of the commission against cracking deals with the government."
The officer also claimed that he faced certain "pressure" from high and influential people, including politicians and officials of the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's office and was shifted out of the probe. "I have faced pressure when the agency officials were probing the case as we have gathered number of evidence against the influential people for their involvement in the Bofors case. As a result I was shifted out of the investigations," the officer claimed.
A $ 15 billion contract between the Indian government and Swedish arms company AB Bofors was signed for supply of over 400 155mm Howitzer field guns on March 24, 1986. Initially, the CBI had registered a complaint on January 22, 1990 and after a thorough investigation the agency set up special investigation team for the case on January 30, 1997.
The CBI files first chargesheeted naming Win Chadha, an agent of Bofors, Quattrocchi, former Indian defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, former Bofors chief Martin Ardbo and the Swedish manufacturer itself on October 12, 1999.
In a related move, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in its recent order said that kickbacks of Rs 41 crore were paid to late Bofors agent Chadha and Quattrocchi in the Howitzer gun deal.
