The Defence Ministry has replaced the Joint Secretary handling the AgustaWestland helicopter scandal and multi-billion dollar medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal.
Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Air) Upamanyu Chatterjee was replaced by Joint Secretary(Establishment) Rajeev Verma, sources said on Friday. Explaining the reason, they said Chatterjee was transferred as he is from the same batch as his new reporting authority Asha Ram Sihag, the new Director General (Acquisition). Sihag will assume charge on Monday next, they added.
Chatterjee, an IAS officer of 1983 batch, was given the charge recently after the sudden death of Arun Kumar Bal, who died of a heart attack while going for a walk. The 1983-batch Maharashtra cadre officer, Chatterjee was involved in negotiations with the French Dassault Aviation for the Rafale MMRCA deal besides AgustaWestland deal, which facing the possibility of cancellation of the contract.
Joint Secretary (Air) is responsible for handling acquisitions for the air force and the procurement requests from other ministries for aerial equipment.