Note in chopper scam has Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh’s name

A 2008 note has cropped up in an Italian court, hearing the Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter case, mentioning the names of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh. Though the note sent by the agent Christian Michel does not suggest these leaders were paid, it advises the company’s regional head Peter Hulett to target Gandhi’s key advisors, Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Pranab Mukherjee, Veerappa Moily, Oscar Fernandes, MK Narayanan and Vinay Singh to strike out a multi-million dollar deal. The TV channels reporting this development claimed the note has been also shared with the CBI.

The British ‘consultant’  Michel has told top AgustaWestland official Hulett, to tell British high commissioner to ‘target’ the closest advisers for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the contract. It is, however, not known, whether the high commissioner actually targeted these leaders or if they helped the contract to come through.

The March 2008 note is one of the many documents that Italian investigators seized from the office of Switzerland-based middleman Guido Haschke who is currently facing trial in the case of alleged 51 million euro kickbacks generated in the Indian VVIP chopper deal.