'The country must know who was bribed': Defence Minister Parrikar attacks Congress in the Rajya Sabha over the AgustaWestland chopper deal
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tore into the Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper deal
There was chaos in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday when Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tore into the Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper deal.
Parrikar claimed that the government was probing the names of people who received bribes and were named by an Italian court.
“The country wants to know who instigated, supported and benefited from corruption. We can’t let this pass,” said Parrikar.
He added that proper procedures were not followed during the previous UPA government in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italian firm AgustaWestland.
The Rs 3,600 crore deal was later cancelled after allegations of bribery surfaced in the media.
The minister's remarks invited angry reactions from the Congress.
Following a recent Italian court order, the chopper deal has become a major flashpoint between the Congress and the ruling BJP, which is targeting the opposition party and the Gandhi family over alleged corruption.
Court order
Parrikar, who listened to the debate for over four hours, pointed out that a recent Italian court order said that “there is proof of mala fide intent” in the deal.
The Italian court - which concluded last month that bribes of up to 30 million euros or Rs 226 crore were paid in India for the chopper deal - referred to documents which mention Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders, including the initials ‘AP’ which the BJP alleges refers to senior leader Ahmed Patel.
A visibly upset Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad termed the defence minister’s speech an insult to the House and asked his party to walk out in protest.
Minutes before that, the government refused to accept the Opposition’s demand for a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the chopper deal, which it said should be completed in three months.
According to Parrikar, a CAG report highlighted that allowed offsets were not compliant with Defence Procurement Policy (DPP). He said the benchmark cost given by the contract negotiation committee (CNC) was unreasonably high, and had provided no realistic basis for price negotiations in the chopper deal.
“The Air Force in January 2006 gave their benchmark estimate for this deal as Rs 793 crore. In September 2008, contract negotiations committee arbitrarily fixed Rs 4877.5 crore as the deal which was 6 times more,” he said.
The minister alleged that instead of taking action against the company, the UPA wrote to the external affairs Ministry, embassy and court.
“CBI registered an FIR in the case on March 12, 2013 based on reference made by defence ministry on February 12, 2013. But the CBI didn’t bother to forward a copy of the FIR to Enforcement Directorate (ED) for nine months. Strangely ED did not act on the FIR till July 2014. It appears that an invincible (sic) hand was guiding actions or in-actions by CBI and ED,” he said.
“After the present government took over, the CBI and ED have been rigorously pursuing all aspects of the investigation," the defence minister said.
“Investigation so far in the VVIP chopper case has revealed involvement of IDS Infotech as a channel for transfer of bribe money.”
Parrikar claimed the BJP government actually banned the company and not the UPA.
The BJP's Bhupendra Yadav initiated the short duration debate, saying: “The truth of the Agusta deal must come out... A convenient backdoor entry was given to Agusta by the Congress.”
Kickbacks routed through an 'intricate maze' of companies
By Atir Khan
The probe into the AgustaWestland chopper deal has revealed that alleged kick-backs in the helicopter purchase were carefully crafted through an intricate maze of companies using multiple bank accounts across several countries.
Lawyer Gautam Khaitan and former Air Chief SP Tyagi, who are being probed as suspects, were put under sustained interrogation by CBI officers on Wednesday.
Sources say Gautam Khaitan has told the CBI that kickbacks were routed to India through an account in Delhi’s Defence Colony bank.
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It has been alleged that Khaitan, Haschke and Gerosa had very cleverly crafted the art of routing kickbacks into India through the FDI route.
AgustaWestland hired a Chandigarh-based company, IDS India, which was given a contract for providing engineering services for 3D modelling of helicopter structural parts. This was certified as exports through the Software Technology Parks of India scheme.
The money was routed to IDS India through IDS Tunisia. IDS Tunisia would get an amount of €5,10,000 per month, out of which €80,000 to €90,000 were sent to IDS India for the 3D modelling work.
