By NitiCentral Staff on February 15, 2013
Even as fresh details surfaced on Friday about the murky AgustaWestland helicopter deal, the Ministry of Defence issued a formal notice to the Italian firm seeking an explanation as to why it should not be penalised for paying bribes to secure the deal of supplying 12 helicopters to India. But the question that was uppermost in everybody’s mind was: Which is ‘the family’ that is said to have received Rs 200 crores in bribes from AgustaWestland?
Documents referred to by the Italian prosecution in its charge sheet filed in court have several references to ‘the family’ as one of the beneficiaries in the bribery scandal.
For example, it quotes an internal communication as saying:
We have had extensive discussions on Sunday. the 8h of May, 2011 and it has come to light that there were two agreements in place with AW which is where the misunderstanding has arisen.
One agreement was for EUR 42m with the team and the other for EUR 28m (not less than 5% of the total contract value) with the family.
The team has agreed to reduce their EUR 42m to EUR 30m while recognizing the need for the agreement of EUR 28m with the family to be honored in full.
The identity of ‘the family’ remains a mystery till now.
An official investigation by Italian authorities into the Finmeccanica copter scam has revealed that a Brigadier in the Indian Army had allegedly demanded a bribe of $5 million. The bribe was allegedly for the purpose of influencing a larger helicopter deal involving AgustaWestland.
The inquiry says that in 2003, in addition to bribing officials for a 12-helicopter deal, the company discussed kickbacks for a serving Brigadier to influence a contract for 197 helicopters.
Read: Brigadier asked for $5 million bribe
The BJP on Friday slammed the Government’s declaration that it will initiate a CBI investigation into the matter. Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad that an SIT probe should be carried out under the supervision of either the Supreme Court or a Parliamentary Committee.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, in a press conference, raised six questions based on the charge sheet:
1. Who gave the contract for the helicopters?
2. Who received the kickback?
3. Who is ‘the family’ involved whose name was mentioned in the charge sheet in the Italian court?
4. What is the relation between the middleman and the kingpin of CWG scam?
5. What are the facts about the company IDS that has been given Rs 100 crore?
6. Has the Government issued any letter for the deal?
Comments (1)
cbril_zenReply
February 15, 2013 at 8:19 pm
Italian media are reporting that Rahul Gandhi’s aide, Kanishka Singh, received massive bribe on behalf of the “the family” to push through the helicopter deal and also favor Finnemeccanica-AugustaWestland for a big future order of 195 helicopters!!
I am not sure what one needs to investigate regarding how corrupt Congress has become.
It’s so blatant nowadays.
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/copter-scam-which-family-got-rs-200-cr.html