Plea against Westland helicopter deal dismissed

The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest petition seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the purchase and subsequent grounding of 21 Westland helicopters from Britain by the Rajiv Gandhi government.

Dismissing the petition filed by Dr B L Wadehra, a division bench comprising Justices Arun Kumar and Dalveer Bhandari observed that the deal was struck in 1989 and it was too late to rake up the matter.

Dr Wadehra said notices should be issued on the petition as it involved wastage of public money amounting to more than Rs 1.25 billion.

He said the helicopters were purchased without the government or Pawan Hans Ltd carrying out a techno-economic feasibility study.

Dr Wadehra said three fatal accidents, which occurred in July 1988 and February and December 1989, proved the apprehensions right.

Today all the 21 helicopters have been found useless and stand grounded, he said.

The petition said the finance ministry was reportedly pressurising Pawan Hans to make the payments while the civil aviation ministry had said it was under no obligation to make any payment.

The sub-standard helicopters are now proposed to be sold for more than Rs 50 million, the petition, alleging that at the time of purchase then finance minister V P Singh had reportedly raised serious objections against the deal.

When Rajiv Gandhi overruled V P Singh, the latter said these helicopters should be ''gifted to some other country rather than being used in India'', the petition said, alleging that the government's effort was to sweep the matter under the carpet.

UNI