International media report that Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi has been arrested by Italian police on charges of subsidiary company AgustaWestland paying a bribe to the Indian government to swing a 2010 deal for 12 AW101 VVIP transport helicopters, the first of which (see photo) arrived in India in December last year. Here's a run-through of earlier posts on the controversy:
In October 2012, AgustaWestland
denied all wrongdoing, and said it had not engaged middlemen of any kind for the deal.
In April last year, the Indian government
ordered the Indian Embassy in Rome to acquire more details about the Italian investigation. The Indian defence minister subsequently informed Parliament that the Italian investigation did not pertain to the Indian deal. The arrest of Orsi today throws up several questions on why the Indian government hasn't shown more alacrity to investigate the allegations.
In Feb 2010, the Indian government
signed a $770-million deal for 12 AgustaWestland AW101 VVIP transport helicopters for the Indian Air Force. A
Mail Today report stated that the Indian government had
pushed the deal through with a list of deviations.