AugustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian multinational helicopter design manufacturing comapany and wholly owned by Finmeccania.
The entire scam opened up after the Finmeccania CEO Guiseppe Orsi was arrested by the Italian police as a part of a bribery probe related to the sale of the 12 VIP helicopters to India in 2010.
Orsi was under investigation for the same ever since 2011 when he left Finmeccanica's helicopter unit AgustaWestland in order to become chief executive of the company.
He is accused to have connection with a Rs3,600 crore bribe paid to secure the helicopter contract with India the same year.
2011 was also the time when the Indian government finally woke up to kickstart a probe into the same case, its first step being getting in touch with the Italian government to get a report about the entire scandal. But all was in vain as the Italian authorities refused to cooperate in view of the case being under a judicial probe.
Now, two days after Orsi's arrest, the Indian defence ministry has requested a detailed CBI report into the entire scam.
Defence minister AK Antony has refused comment on the alleged scam until the CBI report is out, even as he has ensured that the guilty will be severely punished.
Antony said he has already blacklisted six companies and would not hesitate "no matter how big the companies are".
Meanwhile, the scam report brought the names of Juli Tyagi, Docsa and Sandeep Tyagi to the forefront linking them as the cousins of former air chief SP Tyagi.
The Italian Investigators name SP Tyagi as a part of a scam and accuse him of tweaking the requirements of the deal. Tyagi has rubbished the charges, stating that the deal was signed in 2010 when he had retired in 2007.
Tyagi however mentioned that he was a part of the deal when it was proposed in 2003, but not after he retired.
Courtesy:
Published: Wednesday, Feb 13, 2013, 12:50 IST
By Hansika Subramanian | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_what-is-the-augustawestland-case_1799505
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