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| EH101/AW-101 Merlin |
Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Parliament on Wednesday that the procurement process was circumvented in the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland UK.
Parrikar was replying during a debate on the alleged corruption charges in the purchase of VVIP helicopters by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2010.
Last month a Milan, Italy, court ruled that the $553 million AgustaWestland contract for buying VVIP helicopters from Italian company Finmeccanica, signed in 2010, involved payoffs to Indian officials.
Parrikar gave a chronology of the procurement process from when the IAF first sought to acquire the VVIP helicopters to replace the aging MI-8 helicopter.
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