Prosecutors say they know who killed former Swedish PM Olof Palme – why it could be a headache for Congress

Prosecutors say they know who killed former Swedish PM Olof Palme – why it could be a headache for Congress

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Monday, June 08, 2020, 04:20 PM IST
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Olof Palme | Wikimedia Commons

The Swedish police has revealed that they have evidence behind the murder of former Prime Minister Olof Palme, which they have said they will reveal by Wednesday.

However, there are several conspiracy theories doing the rounds since Palme was killed in Stockholm’s busiest street on February 28, 1986 when he was about to walk into a subway station.

One of the theories put forth by Dr Jan Bondeson, the author of Blood on the Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme, told the BBC that she believes that middlemen involved in the Bofors scandal of the 1980s were responsible for his killing.

Swedish arms company Bofors had a deal to supply artillery to India, but it was later revealed to be one of the biggest corruption cases in the country where several middlemen were bribed. The scandal implicated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. "It may well be that Palme found out that the Bofors company was corrupt the very day of the murder," he said. "That gives the middlemen behind the Bofors deal a strong reason to murder him. But that's something the police have always ignored," Bondeson told the BBC.

A Rs 60 crore scam, the alleged amount paid as kickbacks received by Congress seems positively miniscule now, compared to say Nirav Modi’s PNB scam which notched up Rs 12,000 crore.

While kickbacks are the norm across defence deals, this was the first time a PM was directly caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and the guilt is such that the Congress mouthpiece National Herald even labelled Rafale, BJP’s ‘Bofors’, an explicit admission of guilt from anyone related to the Congress.

But Bofors helped in the reversal of Rajiv Gandhi’s mandate and hurt the Indian Army as much as it hurt the Congress. It put India’s attempts to modernise its military in the ICU, inducing a deep fear psychosis for placement of orders fearing bribe scandals that haunts the bureaucracy.

While there is another conspiracy theories doing the rounds, it could be problematic for the Congress if the Bofors theory turns out to be true. The other conspiracies involve the role of South Africa.

South African Defence Force Major General Tai Minnaar has been named by a group of theoriests who claim that they have documented proof that Minnaar and his team of South African security forces were behind Palme’s assassination. Minaar called Palme and enemy of the state in a set of documents and ordered is murder. While the Swedish government thought it another conspiracy theory, one retired official told UK daily The Guardian that the documents signed by Minnaar may be genuine.

South African Defence Force Major General Tai Minnaar has been named by a group of theoriests who claim that they have documented proof that Minnaar and his team of South African security forces were behind Palme’s assassination. Minaar called Palme and enemy of the state in a set of documents and ordered is murder. While the Swedish government thought it another conspiracy theory, one retired official told UK daily The Guardian that the documents signed by Minnaar may be genuine.

Palme, who was serving his second term as Prime Minister of Sweden, insisted of living a normal life. He would dismiss his police protection every night before walking to the station to go home.

He was returning home with his wife Lisbet after watching a movie when he was shot in the back at point blank range. He died immediately. Although a dozen witnesses claim to have seen the accused fire shots, no killer has been identified.

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