The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing arms dealer Abhishek Verma, has begun a probe into allegations of pay-offs in the Rs 3,400-crore VVIP chopper scam, sources have told NDTV. India had signed an agreement to buy 12 helicopters from Anglo-Italian company, Agusta Westland (AW), in 2004.
The investigating agency will be looking into the accounts of IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, the two Chandigarh-based companies that Italian prosecutors claim were allegedly used along with their directors and senior executives to route bribes to India along with other firms in the UK, Mauritius and Tunisia. Middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke were directors of Aeromatrix at the time the deal was signed.
The inquiry in India, which is currently being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has taken its lead so far from Italy, where prosecutors have arrested the former CEO of defence giant Finmeccanica for paying bribes at home and abroad. Agusta Westland is the helicopter division of Finmeccanica.
Sources in the ED say they will begin by checking whether the two companies had the necessary clearances from the Software Technology Park of India (STPI), mandatory for exporting software. Both companies have explained the payments as remuneration for software development. The agency will also check if the companies submitted their periodical reports with the Reserve Bank of India as per government rules.
'We will see if there is any clear violation of FEMA in these provisions,'' said a senior official.
Apart from this, they will begin questioning the executives of both companies, like CEO Pravin Bakshi who was questioned by the CBI on Monday.
After the scandal broke, US attorney Edward Allen had forwarded emails between Abhishek Verma and Agusta Westland to Indian agencies in the last week of February, but investigators say they have found no link between Mr Verma and the VVIP chopper deal yet. Mr Allen's 25-page testimony recorded by the CBI-ED team in October is expected to be part of a chargesheet soon.