FIR against Sonia, ex-PM in Agusta case? SC to hear plea
NEW DELHI: The AgustaWestland chopper scam has come under judicial scrutiny with the Supreme Court on Friday agreeing to hear a PIL seeking registration of FIR against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh and others whose names were mentioned by an Italian court in its verdict.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh issued notice to the Centre and the CBI seeking their response on whether the probe could be taken over from the CBI and given to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the apex court. The petitioner, advocate M L Sharma, said the probe agency was not taking action against high-profile politicians despite their names featuring in the order passed by an Italian court.
This will be the third scam that took place under the UPA which the SC will inquire into after the 2G spectrum and the coal mine allocation scam.
In his petition, Sharma said, “Within the Italian court judgment, names of the above persons have been decided as accused who have taken bribe and are involved in the helicopter deal, therefore an FIR and further criminal action must be initiated against them, but due to political reason the government will not do the same and the matter will be thrown in the dustbin in coming period of time (sic).”
The lawyer had filed a similar petition in 2013 seeking an independent probe into the scam but the court then dismissed his plea. Armed with the Italian court’s order confirming that bribes were paid in the deal, Sharma filed a fresh petition seeking probe against top Congress members, including Ahmed Patel, Oscar Fernandes and former NSA M K Narayanan.
He contended that the Italian court order was sufficient for prosecution of those named in the judgment. He claimed that the helicopter’s service ceiling requirement was reduced from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres to favour AgustaWestland at the cost of national security.”The scope of the Italian probe comes to an end at the point where the alleged commission money reaches India. The probe needs to be done by Indian authority to find out who was paid the money in the establishment or how the funds were worked around within the power circles of Delhi. So far, the government has not been fast enough to respond to revelations that thre- aten to open a can of worms for India’s defence and political circles,” Sharma said.
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