New Delhi: On the face of it, the political sides about to meet across the parliamentary divide of the Opposition and the Treasury benches for the Budget session from February 21 are getting at the same issue: Who made money in the Rs 3,700-crore VVIP AgustaWestland. helicopter deal?
The Opposition believes it has been served defence bribery sizzler on a platter, a case in which 51 million Euros changed hands through ‘foreign’ intermediaries: an (Italian and US) dual passport holding businessman Guido Ralph Haschke arrested and released in Switzerland on Friday in connection to the case (who got paid 20 million Euros); his partner Carlo Gerosa at whose daughter’s wedding the former met his first Indian contact in the deal Julie Tyagi (cousin of ex-Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi); and a mysterious British consultant Christian Michel now reportedly operating out of Dubai and who came into the deal later and walked off with 30 million Euros. With all this and more, the BJP-led NDA is waiting to pounce on the UPA.
17/02/13 Suman K Jha & Santwana Bhattacharya /New Indian Express
