N.RAM CONTINUES to assert that Rajiv Gandhi was involved in a “corrupt deal” and in the subsequent cover-up. “If it’s somebody else what is there to hide?” he asks in an interview published in the latest issue of India Today.
Ram has identified Sogvalor, a company located close to the Italian border, as the main holding company for Pitco which, according to his investigations, was a front company. It was to get Rs120 crore as payoff for the Bofors gun deal. That entitlement” was later transferred to Moresco, which “banked” in the names of Tulip, Lotus and Mont Blanc.
The other mystery player, AE Services, is actually the “real smoking gun.” A.E. Services entered the picture on November 15, 1985, four months before the signing of the contract and walked away with 3 per cent commission.
Ram said he told Rajiv Gandhi about A.E. Services when the two met last year. The Prime Minister ‘was “terribly nervous” and according to Ram, said that neither he nor anyone in his family hand received any money. In case a party politician had made money, tajiv Gandhi wanted Ram to assist in the investigations.
“The Prime Minister either did not know anything or knew too much,” says Ram. “He was interested that I look at the Middle East connection.” Strangely enough, this was exactly what the Hindujas had suggested to Ram throughout the investigations.
Asked whether the Government knew of the men behind A.E. Services, Ram remake”Rajiv Gandhi and Gopi Arora are fully in the picture.” On behalf of the two people, the Central Bureau of Investigation had negotiated with Bob Wilson of A.E. Services to cover their tracks.
Bofors, says Ram, was not the only murky deal in which the Rajiv Gandhi government was involved.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 3, 1989
