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New Delhi, Feb. 17 (PTI): Alleged middleman Guido Haschke had “cleaned up” all documents from his computer relating to the VVIP chopper deal, but they were retrieved along with papers he had hidden at his mother’s home.
Italian media reports said investigators had termed the data found on his computer drives as a “Pandora’s box” where he has noted details of his appointments, his meetings with Indian intermediaries in Italy and in Lugano in Switzerland, and several global transactions, including that of Finmeccanica.
These documents are being used by prosecutors in the Italian court, Tribunale de Busto Arsizio, to build their case against several accused, including former Finmeccanica chief Giuseppe Orsi for allegedly paying Rs 360 crore in kickbacks to bag the Rs 3,600 crore deal, reports in Italian daily Republica suggested.
“He thought he had deleted everything, buried every track on the big business on behalf of Finmeccanica. He had ‘cleaned up’ his computer and he felt calm,” the daily said, quoting the Italian investigators’ report.
It said the prosecutors in the court recovered the “computer hard drives of Haschke where the intermediary had recorded the whole story about the sale of helicopters and other business”.
“Documents and files are now on the table of the prosecutor of Busto Arsizio, Eugenio Fusco, who is trying to rebuild any responsibilities and roles of the protagonists of this ‘affair’,” it said.
The report said the “fate of Orsi is entrusted to its reading of the documents found in a suitcase that Haschke had hidden in his mother’s house and found those files in his computer that he thought he had cleared and reset”.
Haschke was allegedly appointed by Orsi to clinch the deal for AgustaWestland. Orsi has denied any kind of role in paying bribes to bag the deal.
Another middleman, codenamed ADR, has claimed that he knew the “family” of former air chief S.P. Tyagi and met one of his cousins at a wedding in Switzerland, according to investigators.
“My partner and Gerosa had long and good terms with the Tyagi family. I knew the three Tyagi brothers... At the wedding of my partner’s daughter, I met Julie Tyagi,” ADR reportedly told Italian prosecutors.
Julie has denied the allegation.
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