The case of assassination of former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was closed 34 years after his death with several connections tying to the case.
Crux of the Matter
Murderer Discovered On Wednesday, the identity of the murderer of former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was revealed. The development came 34 after the years, and was led by prosecutor Krister Petersson who declared the case ‘closed‘.
Prosecutor Krister Petersson said the assassin was Stig Engstrom, a former employee of Skandia who committed suicide two decades agohttps://t.co/4yDyA6d52F — Livemint (@livemint) June 10, 2020
What Happened? Olof Palme was the PM of Sweden in 1986, belonging to the Social Democratic Party. On 28 February 1986, he was shot dead while returning with his wife from a theater. In 1989, a man called Christer Pettersson was arrested for the crime. However, he was later acquitted. On 10 June, 2020, the chief prosecutor of the case revealed the name of the murderer as Stig Engstrom, who was a person working in a nearby building on the night of the crime. However, Engstrom died in 2000, which caused the prosecutor to close the case. Except stating that Engstrom “was also part of a circle that was very strongly critical of Olof Palme and his politics”, there has been no revelation of his motive for the crime.
Indian Connection While no concrete motives for the murder were found, several experts have tied the case to the political dealings of Palme. In 2005, Dr. Jan Bondeson from Sweden released a book by the title Blood On Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme. In the book, he has declared the Bofors scam as the main factor in the death of Palme. While Palme facilitated the Howitzer Guns Deal between Bofors and India due to being friends with then Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi, he later found out about the alleged underlying scam. Bondeson further reports that Palme was assassinated on the day he found out about the alleged scandal which he planned to expose.
Curiopedia
The Olof Palme International Center is a Swedish non-governmental organization and the Swedish labour movement’s cooperative body for international issues. The areas of interest of the center include democracy, human rights, and peace. It was established in 1992 by the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, and the Swedish Cooperative Union. As of 2018, the Palme Center has 27 member organizations within the Swedish labour movement.
The Jeep scandal in 1948 was the first major corruption case in independent India. V.K. Krishna Menon, the Indian high commissioner to Britain at the time, ignored protocols and signed a Rs. 80 lakh contract for the purchase of army jeeps with a foreign firm. Soon after on 3 February 1956, Krishna Menon was inducted into the Nehru cabinet as minister without portfolio. Later Krishna Menon became Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s trusted ally and the defence minister.
Palme is a 2012 Swedish documentary film directed and written by Maud Nycander and Kristina Lindström. The film is a biographical portrait of the former Prime Minister Olof Palme and covers his life from childhood to the role as a leading figure of Swedish politics.
Curated Coverage
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