States’ deal with blacklisted Agusta for choppers in SC
The Supreme Court on Friday sought assistance of the Centre while admitting for hearing two PILs (public interest litigation) on purchase of helicopters by Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand Government from the Italian Agusta Westland that was blacklisted by the government for alleged bribes paid in the VVIP chopper deal.
The PIL filed by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan was argued by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, seeking CBI or SIT (Special Investigation Team) probe into the alleged nontransparency in the purchase by the five state governments. He cited the CAG report in respect of J&K and Punjab as a fit case for full investigation, stating that Chhattisgarh’s wrongdoing is clear beyond doubt and there are media reports of irregularities also in case of Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
Fixing the hearing in the first week of November, the Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan asked the petitioner to service the petition on the parties impleaded as the respondents.
The other petition has been filed by the leader of opposition in Chhattisgarh Assembly and RTI activist Nitin Sinha alleging non-transparency in the entire helicopter deal by the Chhattisgarh and other state governments.
The Court was told by Bhushan that the state governments had bought the helicopters for the VVIPs either without any tender or through sham tendering and as such they should be probed as done in case of the purchase by the Indian Air Force from the same company that was shelved after the corruption angle emerged.
Bhushan said the BJP government in Chhattisgarh carried out the farce of tender by calling for purchase of only a particular brand of the Agusta helicopters manufactured by none else except the controversial Italian firm and that is how all the three companies that participated in the tender were represented by the same person. Moreover, commission of more than 1 million US dollars was paid in some bank accounts not connected at all with the deal.