BJP is aiming to fire a fresh salvo at Sonia Gandhi after an Italian court order made references to the Congress chief and other top party leaders over bribery allegations in the VVIP chopper scam.
Documents containing the names of Sonia, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and senior leader Oscar Fernandes alluding to their role of having influenced the deal have been made available with the court.
Former IAF chief SP Tyagi has been directly indicted for receiving bribes in the scam.
Although the Vajpayee government initiated the deal for purchase of 12 helicopters for transporting VVIPs, it was bagged by AgustaWestland in 2010 when Pranab Mukherjee was defence minister under the Congress regime.
AgustaWestland is a helicopter manufacturing company based in UK and is a subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica.
After Italian investigators started probing allegations of corruption against the parent firm, the bribery in the chopper deal became evident.
BJP has sought discussion in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha with reference to mentioning of 'Signora' in the court order and over allegations that UPA did not assist with the investigations.
This is an aggregated report from TOI.
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