Armed with fresh details in the 25-year-old Bofors scandal, an aggressive Opposition Thursday disrupted Parliament, alleging "cover up" and demanding a new probe by a judicial commission.
On Wednesday, Bengal's own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third successive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.
The Bofors affair wasn't a scam at all. It was a sting mounted by the mysterious 'N' of the Ardbo diaries, writes Mani Shankar Aiyar
The artillery pounds targets and keeps the enemy's head down, preventing them from firing at attacking troops.
Videos: Bofors, Bip's Singularity and making a Silly Point
Videos: Bofors, Bip's Singularity and making a Silly Point
With the Swedish whistle-blower in the Bofors case giving him a clean chit, megastar Amitabh Bachchan Wednesday said truth had prevailed but nobody could fathom the anguish he had to go through because of the "petulant blame".
Nothing that Sten Lindstrom says now is new, says T N Ninan
The public prefers thrillers that carry the threat of knocking down governments, derailing election campaigns and seeing ministers and officials go to jail, says Sunil Sethi.
Notoriety is a key component of scandals that possess a long shelf life, says Sunil Sethi
The probe team's chief at that time, R K Raghavan, in his new book, said it required "tremendous persuasion" to make Modi agree to a short recess. "This was possibly Modi's concession to the need for a respite for Malhotra rather than for himself. Such was the energy of the man."
This is the first deal for artillery guns since the Bofors scandal in 1980s.
Batting for L K Advani as the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, party leader Uma Bharti on Thursday claimed that he was the "most capable person" to lead the country in the present situation. "Advani ji is the most capable person to lead the country in the present situation," she said. Bharati added that though Advani turns 84 in November, he "retained the enthusiasm of a twelve-year-old".
The case related to an RTI application seeking to know the reasons for filing case withdrawal application against one of the prime accused, Italian Businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, in the Delhi high court.
Quattrocchi was detained and is now on bail in Argentina.
Modi also stepped up attack on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying it was the mindset of the 'sultanate' of the 'Naamdar' to abuse the deprived and treat them as slaves.
The Bharatiya Janata Party sought to project Swami Aseemanand's reported confession of his involvement in Samjhauta blast as a diversionary tactic by Congress in the wake of latest revelations in the Bofors case, accusing the ruling party of giving leverage to Pakistani terrorists by throwing the blame on Hindu radicals for their acts.
A Delhi court on Friday accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation plea to shut the Bofors payoff case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. The verdict of the court comes as a relief for Quattrocchi, as the CBI will now withdraw its case against him.
Reserving its order to February 21 on the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea for closing the Bofors payoff case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a Delhi court pulled up the agency saying its probe has "not moved an inch" in the last 24 years.
Training its guns on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Bofors pay-offs scandal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that he apologise for defending Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi. "Mr PM, you tried to give a clean chit to Quattrocchi," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters, adding this has been found to be false by an income tax tribunal which said that kickbacks of Rs 41 crore were paid to Quattrocchi and Win Chaddha.
With payoffs in Bofors gun deal under the spotlight again, a former Central Bureau of Investigation officer who supervised the case claimed that alleged hawala dealer SK Jain told the probe agency he and Ottavio Quattrocchi received kickbacks from projects routed through them including the howitzer deal.
The 155-millimetre, 52-calibre Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System, which was successfully tested in Pokhran, demonstrated its potential to be a world-beating system.
Defence equipment should be chosen on the basis of technology-transfer and co-production considerations, K Subrahmanyam observes
Innocent anchors in the media, especially electronic, are guilty of raising expectations of a gullible nation without realizing how these accounts operate.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday contended before a Delhi court that there is no change in government's stand on withdrawing the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the wake of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order in the Bofors pay-offs case.
The Bofors ghost returned to haunt the Congress party with an income tax tribunal saying that kickbacks of Rs 41 crore were paid to late Win Chaddha, an agent of the Swedish arms manufacturer and Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Howitzer gun deal and that they are liable to pay tax in India on such income.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked an advocate pursuing the Bofors pay-off case to withdraw his petition seeking directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation to take action for stopping defreezing of bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattarocchi, an accused in the case, in London.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed an application before a Delhi court seeking closure of the Bofors pay-off case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi. In the plea filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, the probe agency said all efforts to extradite Quattrocchi for facing the trial in India has failed.The agency opposed the plea of advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had filed an application in his personal capacity.
They will fawn over a prize catch who has brought a rich dowry of Gwalior-Chambal politicians. But in the end, all BJP members are prajas of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
The Central Bureau of Investigation will formally move an application before the Magistrates Court in Delhi on Saturday withdrawing the cases against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors gun deal, the Union Law Minister Verrappa Moily has said. "The Government has taken a decision for withdrawal of the cases and the Public Prosecutor, on behalf of the CBI, will move an application before the Magistrate's Court on October 3," Moily told PTI in an interview.
Editor-in-Chief of daily 'Dagens Nyhetter' Peter Wolodarski also claimed that Indian envoy to Sweden Banashri Bose Harrison warned that the planned state visit by the President was at risk of being cancelled.
'More than losing Bengal, the worry for their national leadership is the current crisis.' 'If people perceive that the government does not do enough, then there's trouble.'
Two days after the Centre decided to close the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors gun deal, an application was on Thursday moved in a Delhi Court seeking rejection of any closure report that may be filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Congress on Wednesday justified the withdrawal of case against prime accused Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors issue and accused the opposition parties of "flogging a dead horse" over it.
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has backed the Centre's decision to drop the case against Ottavio Quattrocchi admitting that there was nothing left to do in the case.
Four Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok -- had in 2014 signed on a document saying the assets held by one brother belong to all, and that each of them will appoint the others as their executors. But now family patriarch Srichand Hinduja, 84, and his daughter Vinoo want the letter to be declared of "no legal effect" and the family's assets be separated as per his wish of 2016.
O P Galhotra, who investigated the Bofors case and Rishiraj Singh, who arrested Buta Singh's son on corruption charges, are among 19 CBI officials honoured with this year's police medals.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an application seeking stay of the Delhi high court verdict quashing the charges against the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors payoff case.
"It is a good step though taken rather late. The opposition has been bringing out the phantom of Bofors from the cupboard and slaying it again and again for the last 23 years," party spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
"Three 155 mm howitzers (Dhanush) have been handed over to the army recently for user's trial," GCF's Joint General Manager and PRO Sanjay Shrivastava told PTI today.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances