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Italian court to give verdict on AgustaWestland helicopter deal

by IBNS 09 Oct 2014, 08:19 am

New Delhi, Oct 9 (IBNS): A court in Italy is likely to pronounce its verdict on Thursday on the issue if bribes were paid to Indian officials by Anglo-Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland, media reports said.

The British unit of the Finmeccanica Group in Italy landed a 3600-crore contracts to sell 12 helicopters for use by India’s top politicians.

India had cancelled the deal in January this year citing a breach of integrity relating to alleged corruption, sources said.

AgustaWestland had been accused of paying bribes to have the technical criteria changed so that it could qualify for the contract.

Italian investigators had arrested Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi last year for allegedly paying the bribes.

AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini is also under arrest and is being tried in a court in Milan, reports said.

Following the controversy, two governors - BV Wanchoo and MK Narayanan - had resigned from office after they were interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as witnesses.

Narayanan was National Security Advisor and Wanchoo was head of the Special Protection Group (SPG) which handled the security of top political leaders.