Modi government to corner Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam

[JANASENA]

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to name Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the infamous Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland deal. The Defence Ministry plans to seek details from its embassy in Rome for details of the Italian court verdict on the case.

BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi should come out with a clarification over the reported mention of her name in the Italian court's order.

"Her government was the champion of corruption. She must issue a clarification over the mention of her name by the court," Sharma said. 

Asked to comment on the issue, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Aaj Tak, "There is no question of giving any relief to those who have been chargesheeted by the CBI as they are facing serious criminal offences." He was asked if there was any possibility of giving relief to AgustaWestland in the Rs 3600 crore chopper scam in which kickbacks were paid allegedly to the tune of over Rs 350 crore in 2010.

The Defence Ministry has also refused to accept the three AW-101 choppers supplied before the contract was scrapped on January 1, 2013 as it said that it has already recovered Euro 255 million from the Italian firm which was paid as advance for the deal.

The three choppers are currently kept at the Palam air base in New Delhi and are not used for flying operations.

In face of the new revelations and allegations in the case, former Defence Minister AK Antony put up a brave face saying the "government should do what it wants but it should finish the inquiry fast and punish the guilty." This resurfacing of the issue has also given a new weapon to the government to attack the Congress in Parliament.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also dared the Congress to come clean on the chopper deal.

"Now that bribe-givers have been convicted, what should happen to the bribe-takers? Will Mr. (former defence minister AK) Antony publicly give a statement on this? Will he accept that his partymen are involved in the scam?" he said.

What is the case

Italian group Finmeccanica's former chief Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland's former head Bruno Spagnolini were sentenced by a Milan appeals court to jail terms for false accounting and corruption in the sale of the firm's 12 VVIP choppers to India.

While Orsi was given four and a half years in jail, Spagnolini was awarded a four-year jail term.

Three of the helicopters were delivered to the Indian Air Force before the contract - signed in February 2010 - was cancelled.

The IAF sought the AgustaWestland choppers as a replacement for its Mi-17 cargo helicopters that have been modified for VVIP deployment.