Swedish whistleblower’s daughter to launch Chitra Subramaniam’s Boforsgate

Ylva Laestadius, daughter of Sten Lindström—the Bofors whistleblower and former head of the Swedish police who led investigations into the 1980s arms deal—recalls Switzerland-based Indian journalist Chitra Subramaniam frequently calling her father at their home in Stockholm. “I remember her calling all the time. I became very curious about her,” she says.

Laestadius will travel to Delhi to launch Subramaniam’s new book, Boforsgate: A Journalist’s Pursuit of Truth, on March 17. “Her book is so personal. I recognise my father in it. Someone from the family must be there to honour her. I am coming to Delhi representing my father,” she says. An Indophile, Laestadius frequently visits the Himalayas and practises Indian meditation.

It was Lindström who leaked secret documents to Subramaniam, enabling her to expose bribes paid by Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors to secure a lucrative arms deal with New Delhi. Identified only as ‘Sting’ until he revealed himself in 2012, Lindström had secretly provided Subramaniam with over 350 documents—payment instructions, contracts (both open and secret), handwritten notes, minutes of meetings, and an explosive diary. Her investigative reports, initially published in The Hindu and later in The Indian Express and The Statesman, brought the scandal to light.

Subramaniam was just 29 when she began investigating the case in 1987, while Laestadius was 19. Reflecting on that time, Laestadius says, “There was something different about the way my father handled her calls—it was as if a family member was calling, not a stranger. My impression was that she was someone we cared for. I always thought of her as a relative.”

She describes that period as an intense time in her father’s life. “He was 45 then, and both he and my mother, a social worker, had long discussions. They took great care not to burden my younger brother and me with the secrets they knew,” she adds.

Laestadius finally met Subramaniam decades later, in September 2024, when the journalist and her husband travelled to Stockholm to meet Lindström. Looking back, she says, “I always understood the gravity of the situation. No one had ever called our home with such frequency. I knew from the start that they were working on something very important.”

In the late 1980s, she recalls, people in Sweden were outraged by how those in power withheld information about the Bofors payoff scandal. “I even wrote about it in a school essay. I felt incredibly proud that my father was working to uncover the truth,” she says. “And when I began to grasp what Chitra was doing, I thought she was the most courageous person ever.”

Asked whether her father seemed burdened by the weight of his secrets, she replies, “Not at all. He is a very humble man who was doing his duty. He never bragged about anything. He never looked like someone carrying secrets—he looked like someone determined to make things happen.” She adds that her father was frustrated with the lack of progress in Sweden’s probe into the Bofors case and was committed to bringing the truth to light.

Lindström had earlier revealed to Subramaniam how he stumbled upon the Indian connection in the scandal, saying, “During multiple search-and-seize operations at Bofors offices and executives’ premises, my team and I collected every document we could find. Among them were Swiss bank documents instructing that the recipient’s name be redacted. When an accountant questioned why anonymity was needed for legal payments, Bofors had no answer. That’s when we found more and more links leading to India.”

Boforsgate: A Journalist’s Pursuit of TruthChitra SubramaniamSten LindströmSwedish police chief