Meet Rahul Gandhi, the smart realty investor

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi made significant gains in a couple of real estate transactions between 2005 and 2010. The member of Parliament (MP) purchased two shops in MGF Metropolitan mall in Delhi's Saket area during the tenure of the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA-1) government and sold it during the term of UPA-II at thrice the cost price, records reviewed by Business Standard showed. The shops became a subject of a political controversy last week after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirit Somaiya linked these to the alleged irregularities in AgustaWestland helicopter deals.

Gandhi bought these shops for Rs 1.47 crore in December 2005 from an Emaar MGF group firm and sold these in February 2010 for Rs 5.6 crore. An arm of Mumbai-based Welspun group bought the shops helping Gandhi realise a gain of Rs 4.13 crore or 280 per cent over four years and two months. The returns were impressive given that the property market took a steep downturn after peaking around mid-2008.Read more.

Ruckus in RS as Manohar Parrikar speaks on AgustaWestland deal

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.