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| AW101 Merlin (File Photo) |
NEW DELHI — India threatened Wednesday to cancel a deal to purchase 12 helicopters from the Italian firm Finmeccanica if an official inquiry proved the contract worth nearly $750 million was secured through kickbacks.
“If we find any evidence of corruption then we will blacklist the company and even cancel the deal,” Defense Minister A. K. Antony told reporters in New Delhi. “We don’t want to jump the gun... (but) we can get our money back at any stage.”
India’s government announced Tuesday that it had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe reports of alleged bribery of government officials by Finmeccanica after the head of the Italian aerospace giant was arrested. Italian media reports said the company’s chairman and chief executive, Giuseppe Orsi, had been detained as part of an investigation into alleged kickbacks paid to Indian government officials.
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