Despite opposition from the Congress, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikaron Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that he only wanted to give chronology of the events with regard to corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India.
"This matter is not of today, this pertains to year 2002. I just wanted to inform the House, the chronological order of events, without any comments on them, so that the House is aware of when it took place and what happened," Parrikar said in the Upper House.
"Whether they want or don't want, it is for them (Congress)," he added amid uproar in the upper house.
Parrikar, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modiyesterday, had earlier on Monday said that his address in the Parliament would include how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company.
Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has accused the Centre of pursuing a politically motivated campaign to defame the grand old party through the AgustaWestland copter scam.
Meanwhile, former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi is being grilled for the third consecutive day by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at its headquarter here in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs. 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal.
As per reports, the former IAF chief is said to have told the CBI yesterday that he met senior officials of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, while negotiations for the purchase of VVIP choppers were going on.
He also told the interrogators that he had met Finmeccanica's Chief Operating Officer Georgio Zapa in New Delhi on February 15, 2005.
The CBI yesterday quizzed the former IAF chief on the four firms which he and his wife set up after his retirement from service.Read More.
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