Amitabh Bachchan at the news conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, April 25: Amitabh Bachchan today spoke of being vindicated after Sweden’s former police chief gave him a clean chit in the Bofors scam.

“Any statement that underlines one innocence is welcome. But (Sten) Lindstrom was the chief investigator of the case in Sweden. When he says that my name was planted by some people from India — Indian investigators — then it carries that much weight,” Bachchan said, speaking to The Telegraph after a media conference in Mumbai.

It has been 25 years since Bachchan was alleged to be a beneficiary of the Bofors scam by a Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. The paper lost the case after the Bachchans took it to a UK court.

Lindstrom, Sweden’s police chief at the time of the Bofors controversy and chief whistleblower of the scandal, told the Indian website The Hoot yesterday that Bachchan’s name had been “planted” by Indian investigators in the Swedish newspaper.

“They gave me a list of names to pursue, including the name of Amitabh Bachchan. They also told me they did not trust you entirely because you had refused to link the Bachchans to the kickbacks…. During that trip to Sweden, the Indian investigators planted the Bachchan angle on Dagens Nyheter. DN had to apologise and they said the story had come from Indian investigators,” Lindstrom told interviewer Chitra Subramaniam, an investigative journalist of the ’80s credited with pioneering reportage on the Bofors case.

The UK court, too, had come to the same conclusion and awarded Bachchan a compensation and an apology.

“Lindstrom has told Chitra in the interview that the people who planted the story about me chose a Swedish newspaper as she was not willing to buy the plant. And now Chitra has also admitted to the media that she had been approached and pressured to be the medium for the “plant” about me but she had refused,” Bachchan said.

The actor had written in his blog on Tuesday: “Those that colluded in desperation still abound, without as much as a conscious twitch on their well articulated and fashionably cleaned skins.”

“They won momentarily. But lost ultimately. Lost position and strength and power yes, but importantly their conscience. And today that counts the most!”

When asked who were the people he had alluded to in his blog, the actor refused to specify.

“I do not know their names. But they must be the same people who tried to plant my name on Chitra. Ask her,” said Bachchan.

Earlier, the actor had addressed a media conference at Janak, his office near his residence Pratiksha in Mumbai suburb Juhu.

“I am happy that the truth has emerged after 25 years. Me and family stood by each other. I will not be claiming any compensation,” he said.

Bachchan was stoic through the conference but there were moments when feelings did sneak through.

“The Bofors case affected my father and he asked me one day that did I do anything wrong? I wish he was present today. It has been 25 years of humiliation we had to suffer,” Bachchan recounted.