New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate corruption charges in the AgustaWestland deal and charges of money-laundering by Vijay Mallya.
Recently, there were reports that the government was seeking a report from the CBI on the deal to initiate the move to blacklist AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica.
AgustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica. It was formed in July 2000 when owners of Agusta and Westland Helicopters merged to form the group.
The company had bagged contract for supply of helicopters for carrying VVIPs which was cancelled after reports of money changing hands surfaced in Italy.
Last week, a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also saw members demand taking up of the CAG report on the AgustaWestland chopper deal that involves Congress bigwigs including Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.
Meanwhile, in Vijay Mallya case, the government has said that extradition was the only way to bring back the liquor baron to India from the UK
"We are working on the due process of law to bring Mallya back to India," Union Minister Jayant Sinha.
The government had last month declared him a wilful defaulter. His defunct Kingfisher Airline owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to the banks. He had left the country in March.
