Chopper scam: BJP seeks SC monitored probe

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday demanded that the CBI probe into the Rs 3,500 crore VVIP chopper deal scam be monitored by the Supreme Court.

BJP’s Prakash Javadekar said, “If the Supreme Court does not monitor the probe into the chopper deal scam the government will try to influence the CBI.”
Representative image. Courtesy:AgsutaWestland

Representative image. Courtesy:AgsutaWestland

Holding that the government “cannot allow corruption” in military deals, Defence Minister AK Antony said yesterday that “strongest action” would be taken if the CBI detected bribery in the $750 million deal for 12 VVIP AgustaWestland helicopters for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“We have requested CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) for an early inquiry. I can assure you that the moment we get a report from CBI, we will take strongest action provided in the integrity pact… that includes cancellation of the contract and blacklisting the companies. But before CBI’s report, I don’t want to jump to any conclusion,” Antony said.

The Indian defence ministry ordered a CBI probe into the 2010 deal following the arrest of the helicopter’s Italian manufacturer Finmeccanica‘s chief on charges of graft in the contract.

Asked whether the money paid to the Italian firm so far can be claimed back by the Indian government, Antony said, “If the Indian government paid any amount of the money, as per the provisions of the integrity pact, we can get back the entire money we paid to the vendor.”

Meanwhile, Italian investigation reports suggested that businessmen Guido Haschke and Christian Michael were the main middlemen in the deal and around 15 million Euros have been paid to Indian individuals as bribes of the total kickbacks of Euro 51 million.