After 25 years of accusation of being involved in the Bofors scam allegedly, megastar Amitabh Bachchan finally got a clean chit from the Swedish investigators in the Bofors case.
Happiness being evident on the face of the veteran actor, Big B said that he was "pained" to see that the clean chit came "too late." In a press conference yesterday, Bachchan expressed "I remember that when these allegations were leveled against me, my father had asked me if I had done anything wrong but I could not say anything that time. He was disturbed about the allegations. But today he is not with me to hear about this (clean chit)".
Former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom, who led the Bofors probe in his country, had once given interview to a website that alleged Indian investigators had "planted the Bachchan angle", while probing the scandal during a trip to Sweden in 1990 to which Bachchan reacted "25 years after the incident, I read today from one that pioneered accusation and investigation, of innocence. Of the fault that never lay before me."
"Time for the fact and the truth to prevail. Many an incident has passed by in life, where the accusation, the improbable was tested against reality. It looked and felt and was believed for that moment in the worst. Fighting a storm at its worst fury would be stupidity," Bachchan wrote on his blog.
"They won momentarily. But lost ultimately. Lost position and strength and power yes, but importantly their conscience. And today that counts the most!," he added.
What is Bofors scam?
The Bofors case dates back to 1986, when Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a Rs.1,500 crore contract to supply 155 mm howitzers to India. A year later, Swiss media began reporting that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians, including then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and defense officials. The case came into light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister; and was revealed through investigative journalism by Chitra Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the Indian Express and The Hindu.