New Delhi: The 2005 visit of then Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi served as a watershed for the VVIP chopper deal, because while he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the event was used for an under-the-radar meeting between then IAF chief S P Tyagi and Finmeccanica officials, that was organised by the middleman named in the Italian probe into the contract.
Less than a month after the meeting — in which the chopper deal as well as the need for a change in technical specifications was allegedly discussed — the deal got a vital push, with the government starting the process of firming up the technical requirements, as has been detailed in a defence ministry statement on the contract.
17/02/13 Manu Pubby/Indian Express
