The Centre of Friday told the Supreme Court that a chargesheet in the AgustaWestland scam is likely to be filed this year, and that a Special Investigation Team had initiated its inquiry into the Rs 3,600-crore scandal. The apex court dismissed a petition that had sought the registration of an FIR against the political leaders named in the VVIP chopper case – including Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh – as well as a court-monitored investigation into the matter, PTI reported.

The public interest litigation said that while Italy had arrested the head of parent company Finmeccanica on charges that it had paid bribes to win the contract for the helicopters, no action was taken against the culprits in India. "The scope of the Italian probe will end at the point where the alleged commission money reaches India. The probe will not go into who was paid the money in the Indian establishment...The country that would have benefited from the deal has taken action, while the country which lost money has not done anything," the petition said.

The AgustaWestland helicopter deal, which snowballed into a huge controversy, relates to an agreement in 2010, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was to buy 12 helicopters from the British-Italian firm for around Rs 3,600 crore. The deal was put on hold after Italy arrested the head of Finmeccanica. The Central Bureau of Investigation had registered a case against former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and 13 others, including his three cousins and the European middlemen involved in the scam.