Friday, June 3 2005 22:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Karlskoga (Sweden): The collapse of the Bofors kickbacks case in India has been received with a massive sigh of relief in this South Central town of Sweden where the artillery gun major is located with the company eyeing an Indian deal for up gradation of the artillery gun range.

"It has finally ended. The court ruling will help us get back our image internationally," officials told a group of visiting Indian journalists.

"Though Bofors Defence AB is not involved in the court case, we are overjoyed that the controversy has been closed," Haken Kangert, chairman of SWS Defence, the India-specific arm of Bofors in its new incarnation, told sources in Sweden as the artillery company is vying for Indian Army's long delayed acquisition plans to upgrade it entire artillery gun fleet to 155 mm standards.

Bofors' new artillery system, FH77-B05-L52, is a major contender along with South Africa's Denel and Israeli Soltam for India's plans to raise and equip 100 plus regiments of the towed version of the 155mm artillery guns.

The ruling could not have come at a better time for the company, as it is in the process of being merged with British Aerospace Land and Armament Systems to form the United States' fourth largest arms conglomerate after Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon.

The Bofors case ruling hit headlines in this Swedish town where the company is a major employer. "Bofors comes out clean," said 'Nerikes Allehanda', the major newspaper in the region, screaming, "It is justice done though it is long delayed."

The case was covered extensively by the Swedish media with newspapers writing editorials on it, recalling that the payoff allegations had dented the image of the company.

But the guns, by their blazing performance in Kargil, had won the "Praise, gratitude and appreciation of the Indian people and Army" and elsewhere in the world.

"After the performance of the guns in Kargil, we are getting inquiries from a large number of countries," Kangert said as he praised the acumen and daredevilry of the Indian Army for using the guns at such heights, and in such roles which apparently were never even visualised by designers.

Though Bofors AB consigned the deal with India in 1986, it was soon split as its holding company Nobel Industries broke up in 1991 amidst a financial crisis.

While operationally Bofors AB was taken over by Celsius AB, a company owned by the Swedish Government, the legal case went to the other nobel subsidiary, Holland-based AKZO Nobel.

Bofors, which was acquired by United Defence in 2000, faced another crisis, as the US embargo would have hit its India operations. But the US Government after diplomatic talks between Washington and Stockholm agreed to allow the company to deal with India through a wholly owned Swedish company SWS.