Manohar Parrikar: Will lay copter deal information in House on Wednesday

Minister says he will table detailed chronology, details of how clauses in deal were changed.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said Sunday he will place all the facts along with a detailed chronology about the controversial AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal before Parliament on May 4.

“I will place the detailed chronology giving facts about the deal before Parliament on Wednesday. I will place the detailed chronology, how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Goa to lay the foundation stone for a football stadium.

“Those who received kickbacks will not leave behind the proof for us to prosecute them, but we will have to prove it (that kickbacks were received),” he was quoted by PTI as saying. “It is for us to prove everything. Since the issue would be placed in Parliament, I would not like to speak in detail to the media,” he added.

“Why was no action taken against the company till 2014 Why was (it) not blacklisted by the UPA government ” Mr Parrikar asked. “I challenge the Congress to show the UPA government’s order blacklisting the AgustaWestland company. Let them reply first on why it was not banned. It was during our (NDA) government that we banned it,” PTI quoted him as saying.

Mr Parrikar had recently challenged the Congress to show the UPA government order confirming the blacklisting. Sources in the Narendra Modi government had recently claimed that AgustaWestland was not blacklisted by the UPA government, and that it was the NDA government that had put on hold all acquisition proposals with the scam-tainted firm.

The helicopter deal went off track in 2013 when Italy arrested the head of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland’s owner, for paying bribes to secure the deal.