S P Tyagi
THE CBI Friday filed its chargesheet in a Delhi court against former IAF chief S P Tyagi and eight others in connection with the 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case. Filed before Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar, the chargesheet names Tyagi, former IAF deputy chief J S Gujral, AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini, AgustaWestland subsidiary Finmeccanica’s former head Giuseppe Orsi, three European ‘middlemen’, Indian ‘middleman’ Gautam Khaitan, and Tyagi’s cousin Sanjeev alias Julie.
The agency had arrested the Tyagi brothers and Khaitan in December last year. This was the first time that a military chief — retired or serving — was arrested in a probe into alleged corruption in defence procurement. CBI in its chargesheet said that Tyagi was involved in a criminal conspiracy with other accused in 2005, conceded to change IAF’s consistent stand that the 6,000 m service ceiling of VVIP helicopters was an “inescapable operational necessity” and reduced the same to 4,500 m. “…in furtherance of conspiracy, huge illegal gratification through contracts,” it stated.
CBI has said the contracts were “nothing” but “subterfuge to transact huge amounts of kickbacks” and eventually to make payments as illegal gratification to intermediary officials and other concerned persons in India. “Total wrongful loss is estimated as 398.21 million euros,” stated the chargesheet.
According to the CBI, the changes in operational requirements made AgustaWestland eligible to be part of the proposal for VVIP helicopters and “undue favours” were allegedly given to said UK-based private company by allegedly accepting illegal gratification from the accused vendors. This happened through middlemen, including Tyagi’s cousin and an advocate, among others, who accepted the “illegal gratification” to influence through illegal means the concerned public servants.
CBI said its probe looked into “deviation and departure” from defence procurement procedure, “abuse of official position” on part of certain public servants and “fund flow related to bribes involving at least nine countries by a complex web of companies. Letters rogatory(LRs) — letters requesting foreign courts to obtain information or evidence from a specified person within the jurisdiction of that court — were sent to eight countries, partial reports have been received from all of them and supplementary LRs have been sent to Italy, UAE and Mauritius.
In February 2010, the UPA government had signed a contract with AgustaWestland International Ltd (AWIL) for supply of 12 AW 101 VVIP helicopters at an aggregated price of Rs 3,726.96 crore. The government cancelled the deal in January 2014 “on grounds of breach of the pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement” by AWIL. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), also investigating the case, had also filed chargesheets against Khaitan and alleged middleman Christian Michel.
