New Delhi: After remaining passive for almost a year after it first came to light, the VVIP chopper deal controversy has gone through a whirlwind in the past six days. The action – which has now finally led to the cancellation of the Rs 3,546 crore contract – started with the arrest of the Finmeccanica CEO Orsi in Italy on Tuesday.
While arrests and investigations reports on the chopper deal have been made in the past, Tuesday's arrest was a turning point as a very detailed account of the latest in the Italian investigation also came out. This was in the form of a 64 page report by the Italian prosecutors that described the case as it stands now.
Besides Orsi's arrest, the Italians also issued extradition requests to Switzerland for the custody of two key middlemen, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. More importantly, the report had explosive details of the investigations that included the names of Indians alleged to be. The first reaction of the government after the arrest was that it would conduct a CBI probe with Defence Minister AK Antony vowing that `no guilty will be spared'.
16/02/13 Manu Pubby/Indian Express
