Italian court rejects India's plea for information

India’s efforts to access information on the helicopter scam received a setback on Saturday, with an Italian court rejecting a request for documents related to the deal, even as a two-member team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a senior defence ministry official prepared to leave for that country tomorrow to gather evidence.

Rome and Milan are the cities the officials are expected to visit. They would talk to the Italian prosecutors and visit the court where the trial in the case is underway.

Last year, too, CBI had trotted the globe in search of clues for various investigations. A CBI official had recently said how it was often a struggle for officers to garner support of local authorities and collect information. This was also reflected in the fact that around 190 letters rogatory sent by CBI to various countries were still awaiting response.

While scams have increasingly had a foreign connection, CBI has in most cases resorted to sending letters rogatory to the countries that could provide the missing link in any probe.

AgustaWestland, which has been issued a show cause notice by the defence ministry for cancellation of the Rs 3,600-crore deal, on Saturday promised to address all the points raised by the Indian government.

Meanwhile, Guissepe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, the holding company of AgustaWestland, has denied knowing the family of former Indian Air Force chief S P Tyagi, who has been accused of taking bribes.

Orsi’s lawyer Ennio Amodio went a step further, telling Indian TV channels “there is nothing substantiated regarding the actual conduct of Mr Tyagi.”

The court in Milan hearing the case refused to share details, saying it was “not possible to give a positive reply” to the Indian request.

The Indian embassy in Rome had made the request for details and documents of the probe on February 13 after the arrest of Orsi in connection with allegations that kickbacks to the tune of Rs 360 crore were paid in the chopper deal, sources said here on Saturday.

The communication was received by the Indian embassy in Rome from the Judge of Preliminary Investigations of the Tribunal Busto Arsizio Luca Labianca.

In the letter, the judge said: “The investigations were, in fact, at a preliminary stage, during which, according to Article 329 of code of Penal Procedure, all information is covered by secrecy. Only parties and their lawyers are allowed to have access to the information and documents.”

The Italian judge told the Indian embassy his office would consider a “fresh request” from India once the secrecy obligations into the matter get over.

Amid the major uproar here, the Indian government has already ordered a CBI probe into the case and has threatened to scrap the deal.