The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought sanction from the Defence Ministry to prosecute former Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma, as the then Joint Secretary (Air); former Air Vice Marshal Jasbir Singh Panesar; and three others in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.
The permission has also been sought for the prosecution of Deputy Chief Testing Pilot S.A. Kunte, Wing Commander Thomas Mathew and the then Group Captain N. Santosh.
The CBI had registered the case in March 2013 alleging payment of kickbacks in the deal for supply of 12 VVIP helicopters by AgustaWestland.
It is alleged that Mr. Sharma, a 1976 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, had a role in initiating the process for procurement of the helicopters when he was Joint Secretary (Air) in the Defence Ministry from 2003 to 2007. The deal was approved when he was the Director General (Acquisition) in 2010.
Money trail
The agency had filed the first chargesheet in the case in September 2017, in which former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi was arraigned along with 10 others. It initially alleged that €62 million of the bribe money was routed via a web of companies located in India and overseas. The agency tracked the money trail to the British Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.
Among those arraigned were AgustaWestland, its parent Italian company Finmeccanica, IDS Tunisia, Mr. Tyagi’s brother Sanjeev Tyagi, Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, alleged middlemen Christian Michel, Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and former Finmeccanica Chairman Giuseppe Orsi. The chargesheet alleged a loss of €398.21 million to the exchequer.
Mr. Michel was extradited from the UAE in December 2018 and was arrested by the CBI, following which the Enforcement Directorate also arrested him in the money laundering case. He is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
The ED has filed chargesheet against 34 accused persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.