NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday finally cancelled the controversial Rs 3,546 crore contract for 12 VVIP helicopters inked with AgustaWestland in February 2010, which has been enmeshed in allegations of huge kickbacks for over an year now.
The move came just before Indian officials were to question Guido Ralph Haschke, one of the three middlemen in the helicopter deal who allegedly made veiled references to proposed kickbacks to Indian politicians, bureaucrats and IAF officers in a hand-written "draft budget" two years before the contract was actually inked. The Indian officials were to seek clarifications from Haschke through their lawyer on January 6 during the ongoing proceedings in an Italian court.
The CBI here is conducting a parallel probe into the case after having registered an FIR, against former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal (retd) S P Tyagi and 14 others, in March last year. The defence ministry, in turn, last February had first issued a showcause cancellation notice to AgustaWestland, the UK-based subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica. It had also frozen all further payments to the company despite having inducted only three of the 12 AW-101 helicopters, with around 45% of the total contract value already been paid, which were meant to ferry the President, PM and other VVIPs.
The final cancellation process was initiated in November after MoD received the opinion of the law ministry and the attorney general that there was "a clear violation" of the pre-contract integrity pact and the contractual obligations by AgustaWestland. The provisions provide for "strict action including the cancellation of contract, recovery of payment, blacklisting and penal action".
As reported by TOI earlier, Italian prosecutors have presented in court a "draft budget" document prepared in 2008 by Haschke in conjunction with another alleged middleman, London-based consultant Christian Michel, known for his connections and access to politicians in India.
Under the heading "POL" (politicians) in the document, 3 million euros have been earmarked for a person identified as "AP", while 15/16 million euros have been shown against "FAM" (family), as per the reports from Italy. While it's not clear whether Haschke has been questioned on these references, the document also lists what seem like key posts in the defence ministry by references like "DS", "
JS AIR", "AFA", "DG Acquisitions" as well as "CVC" under the head "BUR" (bureaucrats), with 8.5 million euros being budgeted for them.
Overall, Haschke, his partner Carlos Gerosa and Michel were allegedly paid kickbacks totalling 51 million euros (around Rs 400 crore) to swing the deal for AgustaWestland. "Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa managed to send 5.6 million Euros through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Ltd to India and kept the remaining amount of about 24.30 million euros received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia," says the CBI FIR.
AgustaWestland had recently invoked arbitration proceedings but it has been rebuffed by the MoD, which maintains the company clearly violated the pre-contract integrity pact.