A fortnight after cancelling the scam-tainted Rs3,600-crore VVIP helicopter contract, the Defence Ministry has encashed a guarantee of over Rs250 crore deposited by AgustaWestland in a bank here. The Government also plans to file an appeal against an Italian court’s stay on its move to encash another guarantee deposited in an Italian bank.
The Defence Ministry has received the money which was deposited in the State Bank of India here in the form of a guarantee. The total bank guarantee is more than Rs2,000 crore for the 12 helicopters deal.
The recovery took place even as an Italian court stayed India’s move to encash bank guarantee of around Rs2,000 crore. Agusta had approached the court in Italy against the Indian action initiated soon after scrapping of the Rs3,600 crore deal on January one.
Agusta has deposited over 270 million euros (over Rs2,200 crore) as guarantees in banks in India and Italy.
Meanwhile, India is also working on procedures to claim more than 650 million euros (about Rs5,470 crore) from the company in the form of seizure of bank guarantees and imposing penalties, officials said here on Tuesday. They also said the Defence Ministry will not lose any money in which it has paid more than 40 per cent of total contracted amount.
The defence ministry scrapped the deal on January one after finding that there was breach of pre-contract integrity pact by the company for supplying the helicopters to IAF as there were allegations of payment of kickbacks to the tune of Rs360 crore. Augusta supplied three helicopters early last year before the deal was frozen after allegations of bribe surfaced in Italy and the Indian Government ordered a CBI probe. The deal was signed in February 2010.