Agusta Players Spoke Of Italy Dialing Dr Manmohan Singh On CBI Inquiry

New Delhi: Before landing a 3,600-crore deal to supply 12 helicopters for use by India's top politicians, middlemen and executives of the defense manufacturer exchanged notes in which they referred to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her aides, including MK Narayanan, as people who could potentially influence the deal, which was signed in 2010.

Mr Narayanan was at the time National Security Adviser. He told NDTV today that he was not aware of any phone calls to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from his Italian counterpart about the inquiry that was being conducted by the CBI to uncover if bribes were paid for the helicopters by the manufacturer, AgustaWestland, and its Italian parent company.

Earlier this month, an Italian court found top executives associated with AgustaWestland guilty of paying bribes in India. In documents deliberated by the court, middlemen and executives talk of lobbying the then Italian premier to call Dr Singh to solicit an ineffectual investigation in India.
 "When I was in the Prime Minister's Office, I was not aware of any call from Italian PM to Manmohan Singh," Mr Narayanan told NDTV, adding, "Normally I would have known if the Italian PM called Manmohan Singh, I am not aware of such a call."

Mr Narayanan also told NDTV, "I am discovering from you for the first time that a middleman lists me as an adviser to Sonia Gandhi. And that is neither here nor there: what a middleman thought." He said he was West Bengal Governor by 2010, when the contract was signed, and that as far as his own role was concerned as National Security Adviser, he "only reiterated what the previous NDA government under Brajesh Mishra (Narayanan's predecessor) decided".