New Delhi, March 13: The CBI today raided the residence and offices of former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi and named him among the recipients of kickbacks in the Rs 3,550-crore deal to procure VVIP helicopters.
The agency has also named Satish Bagrodia (brother of former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia), chairman and managing director of IDS Infotech, Chandigarh, Pratap Aggarwal, Tyagi’s cousins, Julie, “Docsa” and Sandeep Tyagi, among a total of 12 alleged beneficiaries.
India contracted 12 AW101 AgustaWestland helicopters from the UK-based firm that is a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica in 2010 to ferry the President, Prime Minister and other VVIPs.
Tyagi is the second former service chief to be named as an accused in a CBI FIR. Former navy chief, Admiral (retired) Sushil Kumar, was named in a probe in a deal to procure Israeli Barak missiles.
The searches on Tyagi’s residence in Gurgaon and 13 other locations in Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh followed questioning of the former air chief and his cousins over the last two days.
Bagrodia and Aggarwal who have been named in the FIR were not named in the preliminary enquiry that the CBI had registered earlier.
A CBI source said the agency was slapping charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused. The FIR also names four companies as accused — Finmeccanica, Agusta Westland, IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix — on charges of delivering or routing kickbacks totalling Rs 362 crore in violation of defence procurement policy.
The FIR also names Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke who have figured in investigations in Italy, lawyer Gautam Khaitan who was associated with Aeromatrix, and Praveen Bakshi, the chief executive officer of the company. Finmeccanica chief Giuseppe Orsi and the former CEO of AgustaWestland, Bruno Spagnolini, have also been named in the FIR.
The agency source said the investigators have found evidence of a conspiracy to favour AgustaWestland and that specifications in the tender were changed to benefit the helicopter-maker.
