“Along with Sonia, Congress party as well as Manmohan Singh are also answerable as the entire dealing took place when Congress-led UPA government was in power”, maintained Kumar, who was here to attend a marriage function. A bench of Chief Justice T.S.Thakur, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit directed the listing of the matter next week as PIL petitioner, advocate M.L.Sharma, sought an urgent hearing of the matter.
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Outside Parliament, the BJP kept the pressure and tried to ridicule Gandhi, asking her to use her “old relations” in Italy to find out why an Italian court had mentioned her name in the AgustaWestland bribery case.
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien immediately adjourned the House for 10 minutes lest the situation went out of hand. “CBI raid had been conducted at me, but why there is no raid at Congress persons”.
Registering their protest, the Congress members stormed the Well of the house.
“I think she should come out of this mindset about whether she fears anybody or not and make it clear before the people that when it has been proved by an Italian court that bribe was given, then who received the money”.
Rudy also hit out at Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad over his remark that the charges against his party leaders may have something to do with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with his Italian counterpart during an United Nations event a year ago. “More revelations will come”, he said sarcastically, adding there is a lot of evidence. Manmohan Singh and former defence minister A.K. Antony echoed the sentiment.
Ahmed Patel, Gandhi’s political secretary and a senior party leader, dismissed the accusations against him, saying these were “absolutely baseless”. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, however, ruled Question Hour could not be suspended and the issue could be discussed later after a proper notice was given by Kharge. He said written admission by the alleged middleman has to be examined and “Investigation is underway”.
The issue sparked tension in Lok Sabha also.
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The Milan court of Appeals, in its 8 April judgement, said that the contract involved payoffs to Indian officials and found two executives of AgustaWestland guilty of offering bribes.
