Chopper scam: Middleman Haschke held

Even as the ministry of defence (MoD) is in the process of issuing show cause notice to the Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland for allegedly violating ‘integrity clause’ in connection with Rs36,000-crore VVIP chopper deal, arrest of Italian middleman Guido Haschke on Thursday has strengthened the ministry’s stand. The MoD has already received a legal opinion from the Attorney General on whether the firm breached its contractual obligations and the integrity pact.

Haschke was arrested by Swiss authorities on the charges of giving bribes in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal. He is one of the 13 accused in the FIR filed by CBI which is probing the bribery allegations. The CBI, which also named former IAF chief SP Tyagi in its FIR, claimed that Haschke and another middleman Carlo Gerosa sent 5.6 million euros through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Ltd to India, and kept about 24.30 million euros received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia.

“We are in the process of issuing show cause notice for violating integrity clause in the deal, which will be sent soon to the firm. And after the arrest of Swiss middleman, our stand has become firm,” said an MoD official.