Congress Leader Salman Khurshid’s Name Crops Up In AgustaWestland VVIP chopper

After a media report claimed that his name finds mention in the statements of the key accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said he cannot respond to it until he knows the context in which his name has been mentioned.

A report in a national daily on Tuesday said that not just former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri but his son Bakul Nath, too, along with Congress leaders Khurshid and Ahmed Patel, find mention in the interrogation statements of Rajiv Saxena, the key accused in the Rs 3,000-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.

The BJP on Tuesday attacked the Congress over the issue with senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying his party demands that the Congress not maintain silence on this grave issue.

Apart from several political leaders, three Indian journalists also have been named by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the case. The names of these leaders and journalists, are however, not as presented as accused in the chargesheet filed before the court.

As per the chargesheet, British national and one of the middlemen of the scrapped deal, Christian Michel, had used important personalities in the field of media in order to influence the public opinion.

Reports claim that the chargesheet mentions that Michel used media personalities as evident from trail of payment made to one Raju Santhanam.

(With PTI inputs)