The Enforcement Directorate took almost 16 months to initiate full-blown investigations into the bribery allegations in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, the agency records reveal.
According to government documents, the CBI registered the case against 13 individuals and firms in connection with the deal in March 2013, after about a month’s preliminary enquiry. The move followed arrest of some of the accused by the Italian agencies.
It has now turned out that the CBI did not suo motu share a copy of the case with the ED, which would have enabled immediate investigations into the money trail of the alleged kickbacks. The Directorate also did not ask for the copy on its own.
Inordinate delayOver three months in 2013, after the CBI had registered the case, the Directorate wrote to the agency seeking a copy of the document. However, it was not provided. The ED sent two reminders to the CBI seeking cooperation in getting the papers, on the basis of which it could have launched a probe into the allegations.
However, there was no response from the CBI and it was in December 2013, almost nine months after it had registered the case, that the document was finally supplied to the ED.
The ED allegedly did not take any action on the papers for almost seven months. The agency finally registered the case on July 3, 2014, against over 20 individuals and companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
“As the provisions under which the CBI had registered the case were part of the PMLA schedule of predicate offences, this empowered us to initiate money laundering investigations,” said a government official.
