India's most significant defense scandal, which was buried long ago in Italy, is expected to resurface with the recent visit of Modi to Italy, according to sources.
A tribunal in Italy found four defendants guilty related to agustawestland chopper scam on May 26, 2014, is one of the largest bribery cases connected to India. The defendants included a well-known CEO, the head of an Italian defense company, and two middlemen. However, in 2013, under pressure from India, the then-Italian government never made public the full statements made by the accused, the language of the appeals, or the court's ultimate ruling, which could have had a seismic effect on India's bureaucratic and political apparatus.
These confidential documents hold the key to unlocking the full investigation and identifying the prominent political families and middlemen in India who accepted bribes totaling over Rs 600 crore related to the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter controversy. Given that the Italian court found the bribe givers guilty and that the names of individuals who received the kickback money in India are sealed in the court records, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bribe was received in India. High-ranking sources told Businessworld that following PM Modi's return from his recent trip to Italy, investigations and prosecutions into the VVIP helicopter fraud of the Congress-led UPA government may pick up steam.
According to the reports, Italy gave the Prime Minister or his associates access to their court's extensive 225-page ruling and the accompanying documentation trail, which serves as the decisive proof in the bribery case and can implicate prominent Indian politicians and middlemen. Thus, according to the sources, PM Modi's happiness knew no bounds, as evidenced by his statement made in Italy, "I have never been so happy." The arrests of Bruno Spagnolini, the CEO of AgustaWestland, a helicopter manufacturer, and Guiseppe Orsi, the chairman of Agusta's Italian parent firm Finmeccanica, in February 2013 marked the beginning of the bribery scandal.
The Milan Court of Appeals, which is the Indian High Court's equivalent, found both of them guilty of international corruption, bribery, and money laundering in order to obtain a helicopter deal with the Indian Air Force (IAF), along with two middlemen, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
Secret Names in India That Received Kickbacks The head of one of India's most powerful political families and a former prime minister are exposed by the Italian court ruling. The handwritten notes are included as evidence in the 225-page verdict, which covers the entire bribery affair. Orsi and other individuals have admitted to bribing Indian legislators and vigorously advocating for the agreement. The verdict includes evidence against India's former National Security Advisor as well as the general secretary of a major political party. On pages 193 and 204 of the Italian court ruling, the name of a prominent politician in India and the head of a political family are referenced four times, according to sources.
Based on the evidence presented to him by the Italian authorities, one of AgustaWestland's four found guilty middlemen, Guido Haschke, was able to identify the major political figures in India, as well as party officials and bureaucrats, to whom kickbacks were sent.
The handwritten message from a middleman, Christian Michel James, a British national under prison in India, to Haschke regarding how to divide the 30 million euro commission on the kickback money in India is also attached to page 9 of the Italian court's ruling, according to the sources. According to the notes, the bribe money was distributed in detail among the UPA-era bureaucrats, including the Joint Secretary of the Defense Ministry, the DG Acquisition, and the Defense Secretary. The ruling by the Italian court discloses that Air Force officials received a salary of 6 million euros, while bureaucrats are paid 8.4 million euros. The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) detained uncle Sanjeev Tyagi and former Indian Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi in December 2016 for accepting bribes to sanction the helicopter purchase during the UPA administration. Tyagi was involved in suggesting that India lower the operational ceiling of the helicopters it intended to buy from 6000 meters to 4500 meters, which allowed AgustaWestland to enter the competition.
A political secretary with the initials "AP" was among the approximately 14 to 16 million euros that were paid to Indian politicians, according to documents cited in the ruling. The judgment's pages 163 and 164 listed the former prime minister of India and described Orsi's efforts to persuade him to make the agreement. A note from Orsi, who was in jail at the time and was pleading with the Italian officials, Prime Minister Mario Monti, and Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, to contact the Indian PM, is attached to page 163 of the Italian court's ruling. The previous government here had pushed and worked with the Italian government to bury the remains of India's largest defense scandal following Bofors, the 2013 events that took place in Italy before Modi became PM. Reports says, now these long-dead corpses will begin to reanimate after recent visit of prime minister modi in Italy.