AugustaWestland chopper scam: Congress and corruption have deep roots, says Anurag Thakur

Shimla, Apr 27: BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Wednesday attacked Congress President Sonia Gandhi over her party leaders' alleged involvement in the AugustaWestland chopper deal "scam" alleging "the party and corruption have deep roots".

Citing an appeals court order in Milan, Italy, he said that "in 2013, the (UPA-2) defence ministry had shown lax attitude towards submitting required documents and extensive delay led to an ineffective trial in the matter."

Congress should answer whom it was trying to protect in the scam by not submitting the document, he said. Thakur requested the Defence Minister to find out the facts and reasons for delay in submitting the documents.

Thakur claimed handwritten documents seized from "middleman" involved in finalising the VVIP choppers deal mention bribes to be given to each of the involved "players".

"These allegedly included FAM - 16 mn Euros, and AP - 3 mn Euros. Who are these FAM and AP?" he said.

"Congress and corruption have deep roots but they have achieved newer heights of shamelessness when they earned a bad name for the country by an international court," he said.

Thakur asked Congress to name the "beneficiaries" of alleged scam. He also asked the government to take stringent action against all involved in "destroying" evidences in the case.

PTI