AgustaWestland deal: No brush-by with Italian PM, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Rejecting the media report, quoted by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad which suggests that the Prime Ministers of India and Italy had struck a deal over AgustaWestland case, Leader of the House and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday took a dig at the Opposition party saying it wanted to use the media report as a “possible basis of their defence” in case but it “does not exist.” Facing heat over the Uttarakhand crisis, the ruling BJP is using an Italian court’s verdict in the AugustaWestland chopper bribery case verdict to hit back at the Congress.

Claiming that the previous UPA government had not put any embargo on the scandal tainted company, the government said it will seek a report from the CBI on the deal and initiate the move to blacklist AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica.

Meanwhile, in a significant development in the case probe, the CBI has received reply of its judicial request sent to the authorities concerned in Italy. The agency has also received partial replies of its judicial requests sent to the United Kingdom, Tunisia and British Virgin Island.

Asserting that while the “bribe-giver has been convicted” by the Italian court in the VVIP chopper bribery case, the “identity of the bribe-taker has to be established,” Mr Jaitley said the report is “false and untrue in its entirety.” Even the MEA denied that any such meeting took place between the two PMs.

The media report had claimed that PM Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi had struck a deal to free two Italian marines, who are on trial for killing Indian fishermen, in exchange for information against the Gandhi family. An Italian court had revealed names of Congress top brass including party president Sonia Gandhi in the bribery case in the chopper deal during the UPA regime. The report also claimed that middleman James Christan Michel, had written to Mr Modi denying any role in the VVIP chopper scam. Denying that AgustaWestland was blacklisted during the UPA rule, the government sources asserted that it was the NDA dispensation which had put on hold all acquisition proposals with the VVIP chopper scam-tainted firm.

Sources in the CBI also said the agency sleuths are “analysing details sent by the Italian authorities. Details that have been provided by the Italian authorities are crucial to the agency’s probe”.

As far as execution of CBI’s judicial requests by the authorities concerned of the UK, Tunisia and British Virgin Island is concerned, sources said, “The agency is now preparing to send fresh reminders to these countries for providing all details sought by the agency in its judicial requests. They (these three countries) have not provided all details sought by the CBI”.

The CBI had sent judicial requests or letters rogatories (LRs) to nine countries to get details about certain overseas companies as part of its investigations into the case. The agency on March 13, 2013 had booked former IAF chief S.P. Tyagi and 12 others under charges of bribery, cheating and corruption in the VVIP chopper deal.

The Congress had claimed that the chopper deal was scrapped and action was taken by the then UPA government. But government sources said, “The only punitive action taken by the Congress was in January 2014, just before the Lok Sabha elections, when the UPA government encashed the bank guarantee. They never blacklisted the company as claimed.”

It was on July 3, 2014 when Mr Jaitley was holding the Defence portfolio that an order was issued which put on hold all procurement and acquisition cases in the pipeline with six companies involved in the scam including AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica, the sources said. They said it was also decided that in cases where the tender process had not started, there shall be no dealing with those companies and entities till conclusion of the CBI probe and that Request for Intent/Request for Proposal shall be issued to any of them.