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Chopper deal: Parrikar to place facts before House

Minister to give details of VVIP deal on May 4
Last Updated 01 May 2016, 19:28 IST

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday stated that he would place the chronology and details of the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper purchase deal in Parliament on May 4.

“I will place the detailed chronology, giving facts about the chopper deal before Parliament on Wednesday. I will share how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company,” Parrikar said on the sidelines of a function at Panaji. While some of the facts on the choppergate have come out in the public domain thanks to a report by the CAG and a Defence Ministry press note released in February 2013, there are still several gaps that may be filled up when Parrikar makes the disclosure. Indian Air Force in 1999 proposed to buy 8 helicopters to replace the ageing Mi-8, while the commercial contract to buy 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters was signed in February, 2010.

In the intervening 11 years, one tender was cancelled, technical specifications were changed, the trials were conducted in a questionable manner and the chopper was purchased at a price, which was 4.7 times more than what IAF proposed initially, raising eyebrows in the Finance Ministry. The deal was terminated on January 1, 2014. The Defence Ministry, under Congress leader A K Antony claimed “the procurement case progressed in accordance with the established procurement procedure in a transparent manner with all stages of procurement being followed meticulously.”

Antony’s successor Parrikar, as well as the BJP, challenged those claims following the ruling of an Italian court that found evidence of corruption in the deal.

“Those who received kickbacks will not leave behind the proof for us to prosecute them, but we will have to prove it (that kickbacks were received). It is for us to prove everything now,” he said. A political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP is going on with both sides accusing the other for the scam that disrupted the Parliament in the ongoing session.

“Why was no action taken against the company till 2014? Why was the company not blacklisted by then UPA government? I challenge the Congress to show the UPA government’s order blacklisting the AgustaWestland company. Let them reply first why it was not banned. It was during our (NDA) government that we banned it,” Parrikar said.

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(Published 01 May 2016, 19:28 IST)

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