The controversial AgustaWestland deal for choppers was signed when Sonia Gandhi-led Congress was in power. (File Photo)
Highlights
- Defence Minister Parrikar to update Parliament on Agusta scam
- Agusta was hired to supply 12 helicopters to India, bribes were paid
- BJP says documents implicate Gandhis, other top Congress leaders
With the government promising
a big reveal in Parliament today on the
AgustaWestland scam, Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi said the new information "is most welcome".
Mrs Gandhi, 69, is the chief of the Congress and has been accused by the ruling BJP of a prime position in the scandal, which saw bribes being paid in India by Anglo-Italian firm Agusta for a contract to sell 12 helicopters for Rs 3,600 crores.
The contract was cancelled in 2014 after Italy began investigating Agusta executives for bribe-giving. A recent Italian court verdict declaring that kickbacks were indeed handed out in India has resuscitated the controversy in India. The Italian court deliberated upon documents seized from middlemen and the convicted executives which refer to Mrs Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders. This is evidence, says the ruling BJP, that the documents are credible and implicate the Congress, which was in power when the Agusta deal was transacted.
"I have done nothing wrong,"
said Mrs Gandhi last week. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is to make a statement on the scandal today in parliament; a debate earlier saw the BJP and the Congress swapping allegations of complicity with Agusta.
The Congress says that despite criminal investigations against Agusta, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited the firm and its parent, Finmecannica, to participate in the Make In India campaign which is aimed at boosting defence manufacturing at home to reduce India's dependence on importing arms. The BJP counters that it was only after it displaced the Congress in the 2014 election that Agusta and its linked firms were blacklisted for defence deals.