The Centre on Friday said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had “done everything” to help helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland get the contract for VVIP choppers. Speaking in Parliament, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said what the government could now do what it was unable to when news of the Bofors scandal emerged. Congress politicians and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had been implicated in the case.

Former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, who were both questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case, are “small people” who “washed their hands in a flowing Ganga [of corruption]”, Parrikar said, adding that the Centre intended to “find out where the river was going”. Saying that the government would identify the beneficiaries of the bribes in the Rs 3600-crore scam, the minister also alluded to the Congress being aware of “where the Ganga was going”, PTI reported.

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Parrikar said that the UPA government had taken action against AgustaWestland only after officials of its parent company Finmeccanica were arrested in 2013 for paying bribes to Indian officials to secure the deal. Even though a criminal case was registered in the matter in Italy in November 2011, the UPA government continued with the deal and three choppers were delivered, the defence minister said.

Protesting against Parrikar’s statements in Parliament, Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the Lower House. Party leader Veerappa Moily criticised the defence minister, saying he had made statements that were not based on facts or documents. “Making arbitrary statements on a matter like this is quiet irresponsible on part of the government…We are prepared for a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) inquiry. We are prepared for any Supreme Court-led investigation,” he told ANI.