Agents and brokers were banned under the Indian Defence Procurement Procedure in 2006 whereas the contract negotiations for helicopters had been going on since 2001.
In the backdrop of these negotiations was the Army Aviation Corps ambitious plan to buy 197 helicopters to replace the ageing fleet of Cheetahs and Chetaks. The Augusta of Italy, Bell, Eurocopter, and the Russian Kamov and Kazan were initially in the race but the list later got narrowed down to Eurocopter and Bell. In December 2007, the MOD pointed to discrepancies in the evaluation process and scrapped the Indian Army tender for 197 Eurocopter helicopters.
Further on the Vectra-Defence link, the Vectra Group says that Tatra a.s. is based in Czech Republic and has no relation with the MoD. On this count, the factual position is that Vectra Group is the largest shareholder of the consortium Tatra Holding s.r.o. that owns Tatra a.s.
The Bharat Earth Movers Limited has been making trucks for defence and other purposes under licence from Tatra. It is these trucks that would emerge at the core of the present controversy, government of India, source pointed out.