Chopper deal scam: BJP seeks explanation

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday insisted that the Congress-led UPA government give an explanation about the reported anomalies in the VVIP helicopter deal with an Italian company.

‘Action has been taken in Italy on the VVIP helicopter scam as the CEO of the company has been arrested but no action has been taken here. The country which would have benefited from the deal has taken action while the country which lost money has not done anything,’ BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

Minutes after this reaction, the government ordered a CBI inquiry into the procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters from Finmeccanica, the Italian parent company of Augusta Westland, UK.

The BJP leader said that he had raised a question in the Rajya Sabha to which the government gave a reply on 12 December, 2012 which was not very clear.In the reply, Defence Minister A K Antony had acknowledged that it has come to the notice of Ministry of Defence through several reports that Italian prosecutors had begun a probe into alleged unethical dealings by M/s Finmeccanica. He had then informed the House that the probe into the matter has been widened to include the ibid contract.

Antony had further said that upon his ministries request, the External Affairs Ministry has taken up the matter with the Italian and UK governments to get further details.