A day after Joint Secretary Upamanyu Chatterjee was replaced as in-charge of the department handling the controversial AgustaWestland deal, Defence Ministry on Saturday said the officer will continue to look after the case.
Officials said Defence Minister AK Antony directed that Chatterjee will continue to handle the AgustaWestland case in order to maintain continuity as the officer was dealing with it for the last some months and visited Italy to gather information regarding the scandal. Chatterjee was replaced as Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Air), in-charge of the helicopter deal, which is facing possibility of cancellation in view of bribery allegations.
He was given this additional charge besides his original appointment as Joint Secretary(land Systems) when the then Joint Secretary A K Bal died following a heart attack. Explaining the reason for transferring him from dual charge as Joint Secretary(Air), sources said Chatterjee’s batch mate Asha Ram Sihag has become Director General(Acquisition) and as per IAS norms an officer cannot report to his batch mate.
Sihag and Chatterjee are from 1983 IAS batch and Sihag takes over new appointment on Monday.While Chatterjee will continue to look after AgustaWestland deal, he will be replaced by Rajeev Verma in the office of Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Air), Defence Ministry officials said here. Verma has recently joined the Defence Ministry as Joint Secretary (Establishment).