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Copter deal: CBI team back from Italy with papers
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 24
A decision on the Rs 3,500-crore VVIP helicopter deal is expected within next few days. While a CBI team has procured documents from the Italian authorities, the Ministry of the Defence will start the process of dealing with the show-cause notice it had sent to Italian aerospace major Finmeccanica tomorrow.

There have been allegations of a pay-off of Rs 350 crore in securing the deal for AgustaWestland, a helicopter producing subsidiary of the Finmeccanica. The CBI team returned this morning from Milan with a set of documents procured from the Italian prosecutor. The documents would be examined over the next couple of days and then the CBI will register a preliminary enquiry (PE).

“Sufficient evidence was on record to register a PE and that would be enough for the CBI to suggest to the MoD, the further course of action,” sources said.

The case will be against “unidentified persons” since the Italian authorities have so far shared only certain papers at this stage. The registration of a case will allow the CBI to seek help of Interpol, which had earlier expressed inability to provide any help in the absence of any regular case by the agency.

The MoD, on February 15, served a show-cause notice to the Italian company asking it why the deal should not be cancelled. The company replied last Friday saying: “It has acted correctly throughout the 40 years it has operated in India.”

One member of the CBI team is still in Milan and was expected to get more papers from there. CBI officials had requested the Italian firm to hand over the report of its internal probe. The CBI team, along with officials from the MoD and the External Affairs Ministry, also took help of senior officials of the Italian judiciary to request for assistance in probing the role of Indians in connection with alleged kickbacks in the deal. Two law firms-Chiomenti and Grippo-helped in coordinating with the Italian authorities.

A maze of middlemen and corrupt officials aiding helicopter-maker AgustaWestland had worked through a system that did not allow any “scent of money trial” to reach Indian investigative agencies.

The MoD was left looking only at procedures and the laid-down specifications for the helicopters. Its functionaries could not see any possibility of money being exchanged.

DOCUMENT TRAIL

• A CBI team has returned from Milan with a set of documents procured from the Italian prosecutor
• The documents will be examined over the next couple of days and then the agency will launch a preliminary enquiry
• One member of the CBI team is still in Milan and is expected to get more papers from there