Defence Ministry replaces officer handling chopper scam, MMRCA deal

NEW DELHI: In a sudden development, the Defence Ministry has replaced a Joint Secretary, whose office is in-charge of handling the AgustaWestland chopper scam case and the multi-billion dollar 126 combat aircraft deal of the Air Force.

Defence Ministry's Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Air) Upamanyu Chatterjee has been replaced by present J S (Establishment) Rajeev Verma for handling the office, sources said here.

Chatterjee, an IAS officer of 1983 batch, was given the additional charge recently after the sudden death of Arun Kumar Bal, who died of a heart attack while going for a walk.

The 1983-batch Maharashtra cadre officer has been involved in negotiations with the French Dassault Aviation for the Rafale combat aircraft deal and has handled the all-important AgustaWestland chopper deal, which is facing cancellation after bribery charges against it.

Ministry officials said the decision of replacing Chatterjee was taken he was of the same batch as his new reporting authority Asha Ram Sihag, the new Director General (Acquisition).

The office of the JS and AM (Air) is responsible for handling all the acquisitions for the air force and the procurement requests from other ministries for aerial equipment.

The officer reports to the Director General (Acquisition), who handles the capital budget of over Rs 70,000 crore allocated in the defence budget for modernisation and procurement of new equipment for all the three Services.