Chopper deal middleman was in Delhi to erase trail

February 25, 2013

Chopper_deal

New Delhi, Feb 25: About three months after the Italian prosecutors initiated a probe into the Rs 360-crore payoff in the VVIP helicopter deal in November 2011, Augustawestland key defence agent Guido Ralph Haschke came and stayed in India for a week without raising any eyebrows of the security agencies or the Centre.

Investigative agencies are now digging the immigration records to ascertain how many times Haschke and his associate Gerosa Carlo – both allegedly swung the deal in favour of Augustawestland – flew to India. Also under the scanner are their Indian contacts apart from the ones figured in Italian probe, including the Tyagi family and lawyer Gautam Khaitan.

Haschke had landed in Delhi and stayed in a prominent hotel from February 11 to 19, 2012, to cover up the paper trail as Borgogni Lorenzo, senior employee of Finmecanica that has stakes in Agustawestland, had spilled beans to Italian investigators during his questioning on November 15, 2011. Finmecanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was recently arrested but charges have not been pressed against him.

Sources said the details of his lodging, food expenses, telephone calls made and received and visitors to the hotel are being scanned to find out the exact purpose of Haschke’s long visit at a time when the probe was on but not exposed by the Italian media.

The February 2011 visit was, perhaps, Haschke’s last landing in India as the Swiss businessman refused to come to fix an agenda for the board meeting of Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix – in which he along with Carlo Gerosa, Arihant Jain and Gautam Khaitan were partners but resigned after the expose took place – supposed to have taken place in June, 2012.

The agencies are sifting through the available records of communication between the Italians and Indian figures of the scam to identify leads to strengthen the investigation which is at a very preliminary stage. Sources said that since the Italian investigators were chasing him, Haschke had emailed to Gautam Khaitan asking for documents relating to Aeromatrix to convince prying eyes back home that his Indian deals were not hunky dory. He was also questioned by the Italians some time late last October.

The Italian prosecution has got statements to reveal that Haschke and his partner Gerosa Carlo had dubiously managed to rig the procurement process through their defence establishment contacts and ensure that the contract for supply of 12 copters is bagged by Agustawestland, despite the fact that the machine they were offering did not suite the requirement of the Air Force.

Though an integrity pact was signed to bar middle men in the deal, the Italian military hardware manufacturer had employed, other than Haschke, English middleman Chirstian Michel.

A team of officials from the defence ministry and CBI had recently come from Italy without much vital information though the investigating agency is claiming that they have got some documents from the Italian prosecutors.

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June 30,2020

New Delhi, Jun 30: The Home Ministry on Monday issued guidelines for 'Unlock 2.0' phase across country between July 1 and July 31. The report stated that COVID-19 lockdown shall continue to remain in force in containment zones till July 31. In containment zones, only essential activities to be allowed. The government's guidelines come on a day when Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu extended lockdowns in their respective states to July 31.

Unlock 2.0 Guidelines:

•   Schools, colleges, educational institutes wil remain closed till July 31. Online/distance learning shall continue to be permitted and shall be encouraged

•   Lockdown shall continue to remain in force in containment zones till July 31st.  In containment zones, only essential activities to be allowed.

•   Night Curfew shall continue to remain in force, between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am, except for essential activities and other relaxations.

•   Social/ political/ sports/ entertainment/ academic/ cultural/ religious functions and other large congregations remain prohibited.

•   International air travel, except as allowed by MHA, will also remain barred.

•   Shops depending upon their area, can have more than 5 persons at a time. However, they have to maintain adequate physical distance.

•   Training institutions of the central and state governments will be allowed to function with effect from July 15 and SOP in this regard will be issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs, urging them to ensure compliance of Unlock 2 guidelines and direct all concerned authorities for their strict implementation.

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March 28,2020

New Delhi, Mar 28: The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has risen to 918 that include foreign nationals, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The ministry said: "The total positive cases of coronavirus are 918. The active COVID-19 cases are 819. Cured and discharged are 79. While 19 deaths have occurred so far. One person with COVID-19 migrated. As many as 15,24,266 passengers were screened at airports."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

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March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: As communal violence spiked in north-east Delhi earlier this week, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh residents of a colony came together and stood guard against frenzied mobs which ran riot in nearby areas vandalising homes, shops and torching cars.

They have not let their guard down even as the situation is limping back to normalcy following four days of violence that has claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured.

The B-Block colony in Yamuna Vihar has a Hindu-dominated Bahjanpura on one side and Muslim populated Ghonda on the other.

People from all faiths in the locality sit outside their homes at night and deal with any suspected outsider, Arib, a dentist in his 30s, said.

"It is the sloganeering by mobs that causes panic in the dead of night. Such slogans are from both sides and we hear groups of people moving forward towards our area.

"This is where we let the Muslim locals deal with Muslim groups and Hindu residents deal with Hindu groups coming from outside," he said.

Businessmen, doctors and people working at government offices stuck together as violence reached its crest on Monday and Tuesday, and have been guarding the locality round the clock.

Earlier, the locals had claimed inadequate police deployment in the area, but were satisfied as patrolling by security personnel increased in the last two days.

Charanjeet Singh, a Sikh who owns a transport firm, said residents have ensured that not too many people gather to guard the colony at night. It has been decided not use sticks or rods, an idea which seems to have worked in maintaining peace, he said.

"I was 10 years old when we came to this locality from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut in 1982. There were riots in 1984 and tension in 2002, but even then our area remained peaceful. We have always been united and that is the way we have helped each other," Singh, who is now in his 50s, told PTI.

Faisal, a businessman in his 30s, said after two days of major violence, there was palpable tension in the area. "Nobody could sleep in the neighbourhood even on Wednesday and Thursday when the situation was brought under control," he said.

Faisal said around 4 am on Wednesday, three to four miscreants had torched a car, but were chased away by vigilant residents. They raised an alarm and others gathered, saving other vehicles parked nearby from being damaged, he added.

On the idea of not keeping sticks while guarding B-Block, Singh said, "Violence begets violence, crowd begets crowd. We thought if somebody would see sticks or rods in our hands from a distance and large crowds standing guard, it is likely they would want to come prepared. This could fuel violence."

"Now, if there is some young man returning late in the night, we identify if he belongs to our area. If not, we normally inform him about the situation and guide him to his destination, if required," he added.

Seventy-year-old V K Sharma said people in his colony never had any trouble with each other, as he blamed "outside elements" for the violence in north-east Delhi.

"Some people have some problem with symbols. If they find a particular religion's symbol on a shop, home or a car, they vandalise it.

"This is on both sides, Hindus as well as Muslims. But not all people in all religion are like that. There are good people who outnumber these handful people involved in violence," he said.

The violence happened for two days but it would take months for fear to subside, Sharma said, as he took out his two granddaughters, aged nine and two, out for ice cream.

"I cannot reduce the tension outside my home, but at least I can make these kids feel good by reducing their craving for ice cream,” he added.

Colony resident Shiv Kumar, a property consultant, and Wasim, a government official, said they too were members of this voluntary guards' team of the colony which stays up at night to fend off miscreants.

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