GENEVA, July 3: The Swedish armaments company Bofors has supplied spare parts for anti-tank weapons to India, defying a 1990 ban on the company's activities in the country.

The weapon components for Carl Guistar rifle have been delivered to India through another Swedish company called Mipro AB in a bid to ``help'' the Indian Army, starved of spare parts.

The Carl Gustaf weapons were originally bought by the Indian Army in the mid-seventies, and they were then manufactured by Sweden's State-owned firm, blacklisted from operating in the Indian territory.

Bofors has confirmed that the spare parts were delivered but claims remarkably that it was not aware of the final destination.

The VP Singh Government blacklisted Bofors in 1989-90 till such time that the company parted with names of Indians and others it bribed to secure the 1986-Howitzer deal with India. Since then, the company has tried various ways to re-enter the large and lucrative Indian market, including one failed attempt via Poland.

In a report tomorrow in Sweden's mass circulated newspaper the Aftonblaet to which The Indian Express has had exclusive access Henrik Westander of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society quotes Bofors officials as saying they were unaware of the final destination of the sales.

``It is true that there were deliveries of components for the Carl Gustaf rifle to India this winter,'' a spokesperson for the Bofors told the Swedish peace activist. He confirmed that the spare parts were manufactured at Bofors but that Bofors had no direct contact with the Indian side.

The Indian military, according to the report, is aware of the origins of the spare parts, but Swedish Peace activists say the Indian Government may not be aware of the deal.

No one at Bofors could be reached, but an official at Sweden's arms export control board neither confirmed nor denied the information. ``Such deliveries are subject to strict laws of secrecy and I have no comment to make,'' Paul Beyer of the control boardsaid. Swedish arms export laws prohibit it from selling armaments to regions of tension.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.