Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 28

The Ministry of Defence today issued a statement saying all procurement from tainted Anglo-Italian helicopter maker AgustaWestland has been put on hold since July 2014 and that the contract to supply 12 VVIP helicopters was terminated in January 2014.In simple words, the MoD has indicated that the company is facing a ban.Arun Jaitley of the BJP was the Defence Minister in July 2014 and AK Antony of the Congress was the incumbent in January 2014.The MoD today said the “publicly available information on the procurement of AgustaWestland helicopters clearly shows that the core issue in the matter is corruption”.“The present government has taken effective action to bring out the truth and will leave no stone unturned in pursuing all means to bring to justice the corrupt and the wrong-doers in the case. The time taken is largely because some of the key perpetrators of this misdeed are outside the country,” the statement said.The MoD said questions have been raised on certain trivial technicalities, which appear to be intended to distract attention from the core issue of corruption.The government, through its order dated July 3, 2014, put on hold all procurement/acquisition cases in the pipeline as regards six companies figuring in the FIR registered by the CBI. The said companies are AgustaWestland International Limited, UK; Finmeccanica, Italy, and its group companies, including subsidiaries and affiliates; IDS, Tunisia; Infotech Design System (IDS), Mauritius; IDS Infotech Limited, Mohali; and Aeromatrix Info Solution Private Limited, Chandigarh. No new capital procurement has been made thereafter from these companies.The MoD said a joint venture involving AgustaWestland was cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The proposal was approved on September 2, 2011, based on an application by Indian Rotorcraft Ltd, a joint venture of Tata Sons with AgustaWestland NV, Netherlands. This was later changed to AgustaWestland SpA, Italy, due to re-organisation within the group.On February 7, 2012, an industrial licence for the manufacture of helicopters was granted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to Indian Rotorcraft Ltd. However, the validity of the licence has since expired.