Hyderabad: TD Rajya Sabha member C.M. Ramesh on Wednesday demanded the CBI look into the involvement of Bro. Anil Kumar, son-in-law of late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in the AgustaWestland helicopters deal.
Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, the MP reminded that he had made a similar demand in 2013 in the Rajya Sabha but the then UPA government did not bother to refer it to the CBI.
Mr Ramesh said that Guido Haschke was a director in Emaar-MGF, the firm allegedly involved in the scam. “Haschke started a social service organisation in AP in 2006 for promoting religious activities using overseas funding, the sources of which need to be investigated by the CBI as the trust was allotted huge lands, about 800 acres, in the state free of cost by the YSR government,” he said.
The MP said that Bro. Anil Kumar is a trustee of the foundation, and has shared the dais with Haschke for promoting the religious activities of the trust. It should be noted that the first purchase of the Agusta helicopters in the country was done by YSR at an exorbitant price, he said, adding that the then state government paid Rs 60 crore, instead of Rs 45 crore for the chopper, with annual maintenance contract of Rs 15 crore.
It is intriguing to note that the helicopter started giving technical problems immediately after delivery and ultimately it was gutted in an accident, the MP said. Saying that the seeds of corruption of AgustaWestland, that were sown in AP and have now grown and borne fruit in the fertile land of corruption, the country’s national capital, Mr Ramesh said that this tree of corruption needed to be investigated, as also the role of Bro. Anil Kumar.
