2013 Indian helicopter bribery scandal

[3] Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, is alleged by Italian prosecutors to have received kickbacks from the deal.

[4] A note presented in the Italian court, sent by middleman Christian Michel (who was extradited to India on 4 December 2018), asks Peter Hulett, an Agusta Westland employee, to target key advisors to Sonia Gandhi and lists their names as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Pranab Mukherjee, M. Veerappa Moily, Oscar Fernandes, M. K. Narayanan and Vinay Singh.

[5][6][7] On 8 January 2018, the third Court of Appeals of Milan acquitted the defendants on all charges[8] Abhay Tyagi was also accused to have received kickbacks worth ₹69,00,000.

Controversy over the contract came to light on 12 February 2013 with the arrest of Giuseppe Orsi, the CEO of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland's parent company by Italian authorities over corruption and bribery charges;[9] the following day Indian Defence Minister A.K.

[29][30] In 2013, billionaire Indian arms dealer Abhishek Verma and his Romanian born wife Anca Neacsu were named suspects in this scandal.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had first identified the role of Abhishek Verma[36] and his wife Anca Neacsu[37] in 2013 in several of his blogs and press-releases.

[38][39] Later in April 2017, the Verma couple were exonerated from these allegations of corruption by CBI Special Court of Judge Anju Bajaj Chandana.

In March 2015, the ED traced and identified the properties worth around ₹ 1.12 crore owned by Christian Michel and issued a provisional attachment order.

[44] The CBI and the ED have sent letters rogatory to as many as eight countries including Italy, Tunisia,[45] Mauritius, the UAE, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore and the British Virgin Islands.

[41][46] On 27 February 2013, UPA-II Government introduced a motion in Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament of India) for an investigation led by a 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

He argued that the case involved various legal aspects such as extradition of accused foreigners and custodial interrogation and the JPC can have "none of these powers," leaving it ineffective.

[50] The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) approached Union Law Ministry to record statements of M. K. Narayanan and B. V. Wanchoo in January 2014.

Their statements were considered vital as they were National Security Adviser and Special Protection Group (SPG) chief at the time of the signing of the contract with AgustaWestland.

[63] After nine months of proceedings, on 8 January 2018, the Milan Third Court of Appeals finally cleared the defendants and dismissed all charges, on grounds of insufficient evidence provided by the prosecution to support the allegations[8] The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassazione on 22 May 2019 after the Milan General Prosecutor's office failed to have a recourse supported by the Attorney General.