levelling a string of charges against the Narendra Modi Government, the Congress on Thursday claimed that the Centre and its agencies had forced Agusta Westland accused Christian Michel to sign a false confession naming UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in return for complete exoneration.
AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said that the mudslinging, muckraking and hatchet job enacted by the Modi Government and its ‘Dirty Tricks Department’ i.e CBI/ED, to smear the Opposition leaders is out in the open for the nation to see and adjudge.
“Modi Government has been the protector and benefactor of a company like AgustaWestland,” claimed Surjewala. The Congress further said that Indian agencies are merely involved in hatching a conspiracy against the leaders of the Opposition and using Michel as a tool for the purpose.
“Never before in the history of India has a prime minister been found complicit in gaining false evidence against Opposition leaders to seek revenge,” Surjewala said.
The Congress spokesperson also said that to protect the national interest, the UPA government had proceeded to encash the securities/bank guarantees (both in India and abroad) and recovered an amount of Rs 2,068 crore against the original payment of Rs 1,620 crore. “The UPA Government had also confiscated three AgustaWestland helicopters worth Rs 886.50 crore as per the contract value. Thus, the UPA-Congress Government had effectively recovered nearly Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.
Surjewala also brought up how on August 26, 2014, the Modi government “undid the order of blacklisting of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland” and asked the latter to be part of Make in India programme and participate in Aero India Exhibition.
In April 2015, the government had permitted AgustaWestland to bid for 100 Navy Utility Helicopters.
In February 2016 too Congress had sought answers from the PMO on media reports that the Modi government had agreed to free two arrested Italian marines in exchange of evidence to link Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her family to the Agusta Westland copter scam.
Christian Michel, the 54-year-old agent, had made the allegations in a letter to the International Tribunal of the law of the Seas in Hamburg and the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.