Lawyers of the Anglo-Italian firm also told the court in Busto Arsizio that there was no meeting between Italian officials and the other former IAF chief SP Tyagi, who is named in a CBI FIR, said reports in the Italian media.
A former AgustaWestland official James Saporito had claimed during the last hearing on February 4 that he had hosted Tyagi during one of his visits to that country.
Lawyers said Saporito seemed to be confused over the identity of the person with whom he had had dinner while he was working with the company. Agusta lawyers also shared pictures of Major along with the company officials at a dinner hosted by the firm, said reports. Reacting to the report, Major said he had visited Finmeccanica in 2007 during an official trip to Italy and the company had hosted him, along with his delegation members, for a dinner.
He said his visit had been approved by the government and programme chalked out by officials concerned as well as the Indian Embassy in Italy. "It was not for my personal requirement but for the delegation which was visiting the country," he told a TV channel. The trials of the choppers were held after Major took over from Tyagi on April one, 2007.
The CAG, while auditing the deal, had observed that the trials of the Agusta copters were conducted abroad and not in India and had questioned Major's justification in this regard. The trials for the AgustaWestland model were conducted on representative Merlin helicopters and not on the actual craft whereas the other contender, Sikorsky, had offered its S-92 for try-outs, the CAG had said.
via The Tribune, Chandigarh, India
