NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday canceled a €556 million ($753 million) contract with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland to buy luxury helicopters for VIPs amid bribery allegations.
The deal signed in February 2010 was scrapped after Defence Minister A. K. Antony held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose Congress-led government has been buffeted by a string of corruption scandals.
A defense ministry statement said the government “terminated with immediate effect the agreement” with AgustaWestland International Ltd (AWIL) to supply 12 helicopters “on grounds of breach of a pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement by AWIL.”
India suspended the deal in 2013 after Italian investigators began looking into accusations that AgustaWestland paid bribes to win the contract.
The Italian boss of AgustaWestland’s parent company Finmeccanica was arrested last February over the case — touching off a firestorm in India.
The latest move by the Indian defense ministry is seen as a government attempt to contain the fallout from the corruption scandal before elections due by May.
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