New Delhi, July 20: A Delhi court will consider on July 23 whether to consider a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper bribery case or not. Special judge Arvind Kumar to take up the matter on Monday as the investigating officer was not present today. The ED claimed to have recorded unimpeachable evidence against all accused persons.

The agency had filed a supplementary charge sheet in a Delhi court on July 18. In the chargesheet, a total, of 34 individuals were named including  Former AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica directors Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, and ex-Indian Air force (IAF) chief S P Tyagi, Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, lawyer Gautam Khaitan of laundering money to the tune of around 28 million Euro. Another middleman Christian Michel was arrested in Dubai on July 18 in connection with the case.

The probe report also claimed that AgustaWestland paid the kickbacks through two different channels. The ED, in its charge sheet, has alleged that money was laundered through multiple foreign companies which were used as fronts to park alleged kickbacks. The chargesheet considered Khaitan as the mastermind behind the money laundering.

On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF The deal was scrapped over an alleged breach of contractual obligations. It was also alleged that kickbacks of Rs 423 crore were paid to secure the deal.

The Congress, however, accused the Modi government of conspiring against its top leadership. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged the Centre and its agencies had forced suspected middleman Michel to make a false confessional statement against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 20, 2018 03:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).