CBI has filed a supplementary chargesheet on September 18 against 15 accused, including individuals and companies, in connection with the Agusta Westland chopper deal scam case. This supplementary chargesheet was filed in the court of a special CBI judge in New Delhi.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the accused include the then Managing Director, then Director, then GM and other officials of said companies based out of Mohali, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Kolkata and Mauritius.
The chargesheet lists the said individuals and companies as accused under sections 120B read/with 201, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 7, 8, 9, 12 & 13(2) read/with section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. As per the CBI, the case involves contracts awarded to UK-based company for the supply of 12 VVIP helicopters.
It was alleged in the chargesheet that two of the accused acquired a Kolkata-based company in 2009 to launder illicit kickbacks (ill-gotten money). The accused received funds through banking channels in collusion with other accused that created shell companies and opened fake accounts in different banks for returning such kickbacks.
Investigators of the CBI also alleged that in pursuance of the conspiracy, the other accused companies had facilitated in transferring/routing the kickbacks/bribe paid by a UK-based company through their respective companies. The other accused allegedly prepared fake invoices and sent mails for transferring the said kickbacks through said companies. The copies of documents and details were recovered.
The CBI had earlier filed a chargesheet in connection with this case on September 1, 2017 against then Air Chief Marshal (now Retd.) and 11 other accused.