DNA Edit: Helicopter shot – Talwar and Saxena will give Congress sleepless nights

The arrests of Deepak Talwar and Rajeev Saxena are proof of the government’s determination to tackle high-profile corruption cases. Talwar and Saxena were extradited from Dubai. The ED and the CBI are charging Talwar of corruption while the Income Tax department has booked him for tax evasion. Saxena allegedly played a key role in laundering kickbacks from the Indian Air Force’s deal with British manufacturer AgustaWestland to buy a dozen helicopters for use by VVIPs. As a corporate lobbyist, Talwar had been a facilitator of civil aviation contracts during the UPA regime. As the investigative agencies pick up the loose strands in the VIP helicopter case, the Congress will find itself in a tight spot before the 2019 elections. With the arrest of middleman Christian Michel, a British national, it had become fairly clear that the rot runs pretty deep. Saxena had earlier been summoned multiple times by the ED in connection with the case. 

The ED had alleged that “Saxena, his wife and two other firms had routed the proceeds of crime and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others”. There is no doubt that defence deals during the UPA rule were either mired in suspicion or controversies. And the way investigations into the AgustaWestland case are progressing, the old ghosts will return to haunt the grand old party. Recall that in 2014, the government scrapped the contract amid allegations that AgustaWestland, whose parent company Finmeccanica faced charges of bribery in Italy, had paid kickbacks in India. It is entirely possible that Michel did organise bribes to secure a Rs 3,600-crore contract. This election season, the contest between Rafale and AgustaWestland is hotting up.