India requests eight countries to provide evidence in multi-million AgustaWestland chopper deal scam

India has once again requested eight countries to expeditiously provide information or evidence in the multi-million helicopter scam, said foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup on Thursday (May 05) after a heated debate in Parliament.

The AgustaWestland chopper deal scandal was taken up for discussion in Parliament on Wednesday May 04 for the first time after an Italian appeals court ruled that the defence manufacturer paid bribes to fetch a contract to supply 12 helicopters to India for VVIP use in 2010.

Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar had on Wednesday told Parliament that India’s probe would focus on the names mentioned in the judgment of the Italian court.

Swarup said the government had asked its mission in eight countries including Italy and UK to expedite the process after a request from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the scam.

“We have received a communication in this regard from the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), seeking an update on the execution reports of Letters Rogatory (LRs) that were sent earlier to the eight countries. We have once again written to our missions in the concerned countries from where execution reports are pending in order to impress upon them the need to expeditiously execute the LRs and to send their corresponding execution reports at the earliest,” said Swarup in New Delhi.

“I will tell you those names – Italy, Tunisia, Mauritius, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, UK (United Kingdom), UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Switzerland,” he added.

Letters Rogatory is an official request to obtain information or evidence from a specified person within the jurisdiction of that court or country.

In February 2010, then ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government awarded a tender to Italian industry group Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland for 12 choppers for VVIP use.

The deal was suspended three years later after the arrest of Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, chairman of Finmeccanica and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AgustaWestland respectively, on charges of bribing Indian Air Force (IAF) officials to secure the deal, as per Ceylon News.

India finally cancelled the $770-million deal in 2014 in what was termed a breach of integrity.

It is alleged that changes in specification of the helicopters were made to make AgustaWestland eligible for the deal.

Paying or accepting bribes are prohibited by India's defense procurement rules. The government can cancel a contract if an integrity pact in the rules is violated, and the seller has to forfeit any security money it deposited as a bidder.

Indian defense deals have been hit by a number of corruption allegations over the past two decades. Cancelled deals have set back purchases since the mid-1980s.

(Reuters contributed to the story)