Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's name had cropped up in the Bofors gun deal, that blew into a major political scandal between Sweden and India during the 1980s and 1990s.
The government on Friday vowed to take the investigations into the Rs 3,726 crore AgustaWestland scam to a logical conclusion and not repeat the mistakes of Bofors case, where almost all the accused went scot-free.
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's name had cropped up in the Bofors gun deal, that blew into a major political scandal between Sweden and India during the 1980s and 1990s.
Mounting a scathing attack on the Congress, for the second time in parliament this week, defence minister Manohar Parrikar produced reams of documents to show that Agusta choppers were not at all fit for flying VVIPs and that UPA was involved in articulating the corruption. He also promised to get CBI to investigate a "mysterious" fire at the ministry of defence (MoD) in June 2014, that burnt Agusta files.
Even as the Congress staged a walkout from the parliament, the minister reiterated his earlier contention that the requirements of the chopper were changed to accommodate AgustaWestland's bid by the UPA. He said that the flying capacity of the choppers was brought down from what was mandated in the RFP (request for proposal ) 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres.
Referring to facts that emerged from the field test of the AW-101 choppers, he pointed out that serious questions were raised about its capacity. The helicopters failed test at 5,400 feet in Srinagar. It was also flagged that it could not be used for flying in Gulmarg and Pahalgam.
Parrikar referred to an "Äirport office-2" at the South block office of the ministry of defence (MoD) and said that sensitive Agusta files were lost in a "mysterious" fire on June 3, 2014 , a week after Modi government took over. "Only three files were saved in the fire as they were kept by an officer in his drawer". He said he didn't know the real cause of the fire but will ask CBI to investigate it.
The minister said that people like former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief SP Tyagi, accused of receiving kickbacks, are "small" and "we have to find the big names". He said he can take names and also had the courage to do so, but wanted to go by parliament practices.
A combative Parrikar, replying to a volley of questions by Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia on alleged inaction by the present Modi government, said the Congress was involved in corruption and took no proactive step when the scam came to limelight. He added that the termination of contract by the UPA government in 2014 was a forced action and not "proactive".
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