The tainted chopper deal worth Rs 3,600 crore with Italy's AgustaWestland has raised a lot of questions. On Wednesday, sources said that the government had decided put the deal on hold even as Opposition demanded that the deal be scrapped.
Below are 20 points to explain what is the AgustaWestland deal:
1. AgustaWestland deal is worth about Rs 3600 crore for 12 VVIP helicopters, which the company signed with the Indian Air Force (IAF) in February 8, 2010.
2. Three of the 12 helicopters, which have a high safety rating, have been delivered to the IAF.
3. Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi appointed Guido Ralph Haschke to make sure that requirements were tweaked in favour of his company.
4. Haschke allegedly came in contact with former Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi's relatives - Juli, Dosca and Sandeep - with the help of his business partner Carlo Gerosa.
5. The bribe was allegedly given to former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi through his cousins' for the deal.
6. The Italian report has alleged that 51 million euro kickbacks were paid between 2005 and 2011, during the UPA regime.
7. The kickbacks were paid in the form of monthly remittances disguised as payments for engineering contracts.
8. The payments were allegedly made through two companies - IDS India and IDS Tunisia - and no taxes were paid on the same.
9. SP Tyagi was the IAF chief between 2004 and 2007 and the bribe was offered to him during this period.
10. Italian investigation into the deal has thrown up name of Sanjeev Tyagi, cousin of SP Tyagi.
11. SP Tyagi has also dragged in some crucial names including Brajesh Mishra, the former National Security Advisor during the NDA regime.
12. According to the report the requirement that the bidding helicopters should be able to fly at a height of 18,000 feet was reduced to 15,000 feet so that AgustaWestland helicopter could become eligible.
13. Bribe was also allegedly paid to add a clause of test flights which enabled AgustaWestland to take part in the tender with a third engine.
14. Allegedly, Rs 370 crore was paid as bribe in the deal which is worth Rs 3546 crore out of which almost Rs 200 crore was paid as bribe in Italy and India through a defence middleman Christian Michael, who was in London.
15. The investigation into Finmeccanica, which started more than a year ago, is one of a series of corruption scandals in defence dealmaking in India.
16. Giuseppe Orsi, the head of Italian defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica, was arrested on Monday in relation to a probe into international corruption.
17. The arrests over Indian bribery allegations come as Finmeccanica unit Alenia Aermacchi hopes to compete for a contract to supply over 50 military transport aircraft to India in competition with European aerospace group EADS.
18. Former Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy has denied receiving any letter from the Prime Minister's Office in 2003 on the AgustaWestland chopper deal.
19. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh has defended the NDA government's decision to change the chopper deal norms in 2003, saying it was taken for purely professional reasons.
20. The Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland chopper deal has now been put on hold by the government.
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