Ottavio Quattrocchi

July 13: The man who knew the truth about Bofors is dead. Ottavio Quattrocchi, 72, died after a stroke in Milan on Friday night.

Quattrocchi, called Mr Q by many in the media and his critics, was a close friend of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi. By his own admission, he was in regular touch with Sonia until 1993 when the prospect of arrest prompted him to shift base to Malaysia.

A representative of Snamprogetti, a Milan-based Italian multinational company involved in engineering and construction projects, his Indian association coincided with the year Rajiv and Sonia got married.

After coming to India initially in 1964, Quattrocchi had left for Nigeria before returning to work on his first Snamprogetti project, the Madras Refinery. His wife, Maria, was described by friends as the “driving force” behind her husband’s rise.

Maria was said to have forged a close association with Sonia and often took her mother out shopping. The younger two of the four Quattrocchi children grew up playing with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.

The Quattrocchis were regulars at the Sunday brunch served at the Gandhi residence. The gathering included Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Suman and Manjulika Dubey, Mohan and Nirmal Thadani, Michael and Usha Albuquerque, Sunita and Ramesh Kohli, Deep Kaul, Romi Chopra, Arun and Nina Singh and Satish and Sterre Sharma. This circle of friends saw Rajiv and Sonia giggling, cracking jokes and spending quality time with them.

Sonia often opted for Kashmiri cuisine or simple Indian meals served in thalis consisting of dal, two vegetables, salad and a non-vegetarian dish.

The exclusiveness of the gathering used to cause a lot of heartburn and rumour-mongering among those not included in the Prime Minister’s “inner circle”.

Throughout Rajiv’s tenure from 1985 to 1989, there were allegations that Quattrocchi was so influential that ministers and senior bureaucrats used to stand up when Quattrocchi visited them. It was also alleged he could get ministers and bureaucrats sacked if they snubbed him.

When Ramchandra Rath, a former Youth Congress chief and close associate of Sanjay Gandhi, had to step down as fertiliser minister in the Rajiv government, the Delhi grapevine had it that this was the price for keeping Quattrocchi waiting. Rath claimed he was having lunch with the then Odisha governor. “I didn’t know who he was at the time,” Rath recalled.

But for many Congressmen, business leaders and bureaucrats, Quattrocchi was a good-humoured, social person who loved entertaining the high and mighty. He was the archetypal middleman: expansive, earthy, full of laughter and fond of showing off, with an ingratiating manner.

“He was full of bureaucratic gossip, name-dropped constantly and made no secret of his proximity to the Gandhi family,” recalls a former Union minister who asked not to be named.

Quattrocchi left India for Malaysia on July 29, 1993. The CBI tried, but failed, to get him extradited to face trial in the Bofors case.

In 1986, the Swiss arms manufacturer had landed a $15 billion (Rs 1,500 crore) contract to supply Howitzer guns to India. Quattrocchi allegedly served as a middleman in the deal in which kickbacks were said to have been paid to Indian politicians and defence officials.

The Bofors scandal cost Rajiv the general election in 1989.

The CBI chargesheet, filed in 1999 when the NDA was in power, accused Quattrocchi of serving as a conduit for bribes. His wife Maria and the Bofors representative in India, Win Chadha, were also named. Chadha died in 2001.

The CBI said Quattrocchi’s AE Services received $7.3 million and Win Chaddha’s Svenska Inc received $27 million from AB Bofors for securing the contract from the Rajiv Gandhi-led government in 1986. It said Quattrocchi had deposited the money in Swiss banks for the benefit of certain Indian public servants.

In 1993, Quattrocchi had faxed a signed, three-page news release that originated from Kuala Lumpur but appeared to have been routed through a source in Delhi. In it he put forth his denial and strongly defended the Gandhi family. He described Rajiv as a “noble soul”.

Quattrocchi had said he had no plans to return to India. Asked whether he was still friendly with the Gandhis, he shot back: “Whether I maintain links with the Gandhi family or not is my private affair; why should I tell anybody about it? But once I am a friend of somebody, I remain a friend. Be it good or bad times.”

The Italian denied having ever dealt with Bofors. “I have never had any dealings with Bofors. I never received any money from Bofors, either in the gun deal or any other deal,” he said. His counsel told the apex court that Quattrocchi was prepared to come to India if promised he would not be arrested.