THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 7: Former Foreign Secretary K P S Menon confirmed here today that there was a move to transfer the then Indian Ambassador in Stockholm, B M Oza, out of his station in 1987 after the Swedish radio report on the Bofors scandal.

But he said he was not in a position to say if the move to transfer Oza was at Rajiv Gandhi's behest. ``It is true that I intervened and stayed Oza's transfer from Stockholm. Yes, I stood by him. I remember the events clearly. There were no allegations against him. He did nothing wrong and there was no reason to transfer him. But I cannot say whether Rajiv Gandhi wanted Oza out of Stockholm.''

The former Foreign Secretary also did not want to comment on the Bofors scandal or the PMO's (Prime Minister's Office) role in running the country's external affairs during Rajiv Gandhi's period. Oza has come out with a book in which he says he had ``no doubt'' that Rajiv Gandhi had received bribes in the gun deal through Ottavio Quattrocchi. Oza had been posted in Stockholm from 1984 to 1988, the period in which, he alleged, Rajiv Gandhi and members of the PMO indulged in a massive cover-up. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 1994.

Oza is the second official the other being former Army Chief General K Sundarji to expose the high-level machinations that went on after the Bofors scandal was exposed in 1987. Oza had said that it was the interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this year that provoked him to write the book.

According to him, Rajiv Gandhi had expressed his disapproval at his intervention at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs and had proposed that he be immediately recalled or transferred from Stockholm. It was K P S Menon who had intervened and helped Oza stay on in Stockholm till 1988.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.