India on Wednesday finally cancelled the controversial 
3,546 Crore contract for 12VVIP helicopters inked with Agusta Westland in February 2010, which has been enmeshed in allegations of huge kickbacks for over a year row.
The move came just before Indian officials were to question Guido Ralph Haschke, one of the three middlemen in the helicopter deal who allegedly made veiled references to proposed kickbacks to Indian politicians, bureaucrats and IAF officers in a handwritten "draft budget" two years before the contract was actually inked.
The Indian officials were to seek clarifications from Haschke through their lawyer on January 6 during ongoing proceedings in an Italian court.
The CBI here is conducting a parallel probe into the case after having registered an FIR , against former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal (Retd) S.P.Tyagi and 14 others in March last year.
The defence ministry, in turn, last February had first issued a show cause cancellation notice to Agusta Westland, the UK based subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica.
It had also frozen all further payments to company despite having inducted only three of the 12 AW-101 helicopters , with around 45% of the total contract value already been paid, which were meant to ferry the President, PM and other VVIPs.
The final cancellation process was initiated in November after MoD received the opinion of the law ministry and the attorney general that there was "a clear violation" of the pre-contract integrity pact and the contractual obligations by Agusta Westland.
