New Delhi, Dec. 17 (PTI): Former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi was on Saturday sent to judicial custody till December 30 after the CBI said he was not required for further custodial interrogation in the AgustaWestland AW101 VIP helicopter case.

Judge Arvind Kumar of the special court handling Central Bureau of Investigation cases also sent Tyagi's cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan to jail after the probe agency did not seek their further custody.

The three are accused of being part of a kickbacks scandal in a 2010 deal to buy a dozen AW101 VIP helicopters from AgustaWestland, a division of Italian defence group Finmeccanica, in the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

The CBI had arrested Tyagi, 71, who had retired in 2007, and the other two on December 9. Talks for the deal had begun earlier.

After the CBI’s submission, all the three accused moved their bail applications, which will be heard on December 21 as the agency sought time to reply to the applications.

The counsel for Tyagi submitted before the court that the Italian top court had ordered retrial of former Finmeccanica executives in the case, which makes the CBI's stand weak in the current case.

The court, however, said it would take up the matter on the next hearing on December 21.

On December 14, the court had extended the CBI remand of Tyagi and the two others by three days after the CBI had said it was a “very serious” case requiring interrogation to unearth larger conspiracy as “interest of the nation was compromised”.

The agency had earlier submitted in the court that it was a very high-profile case and they needed proper material. One part of the crime was committed in India while various other angles were abroad.

Tyagi's counsel had told the court that he was “a decorated war hero of the nation” and “CBI, which was termed as 'a caged parrot' by the Supreme Court, is trying to tarnish his image”.

Earlier, Tyagi's counsel had said the decision to procure the AgustaWestland helicopters for use by VVIPs was a “collective” one and the Prime Minister's Office was also a part of it.

The CBI had alleged that Tyagi had “abused his official position” and when he was the air chief marshal, he had made huge investments in land and other properties and had not disclosed the source of his income.