AgustaWestland deal: Jaitley seeks clarification from Antony

"I have already said that these note sheets remind us of the 1987 seizures in Sweden where the entry in Martin Ardbo's diary referred to the word 'Q'. It eventually became clear as to who 'Q' was. Is it rocket science, in the political arena, to decipher the abbreviation mentioned in the note sheet?

"Is it not unusual for middleman to be referred to as 'Family'? When words in their natural course are understood to have a particular meaning, why should the word 'Family' be given a meaning other than how it is understood in India?" Jaitley said.

Former air chief S.P. Tyagi is among the people being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the VVIP chopper deal.

The ministry had last month scrapped its contract with AgustaWestland to supply 12 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force for "breach of pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement".

The deal with AgustaWestland - the British subsidiary of Italian firm Finmeccanica - was scrapped more than a year after reports that two top officials of the company allegedly paid bribes to bag the contract for the chopper maker.