Saturday, December 10, 2016

Ex-IAF chief S.P. Tyagi arrested in AgustaWestland case

Ex-IAF chief S.P. Tyagi arrested in AgustaWestland case
New Delhi :  The CBI on Friday, 9th December 2016 arrested former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief S.P. Tyagi on charges of corruption in its ongoing probe into the Rs 3,767-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal.
S.P. Tyagi is the first chief of any wing of the armed forces to be arrested in the country.
He was taken into custody from Delhi along with his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi alias Julie Tyagi and a Delhi-based lawyer, Gautam Khaitan, for their involvement in alleged irregularities in the procurement of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters from a UK-based private company AgustaWestland.
They were arrested after being called for questioning to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in south Delhi. S.P. Tyagi has denied the allegations hurled against him.
"S.P. Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev and Gautam Khaitan were arrested from Delhi. They will be produced before a designated CBI court on Saturday," CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said.
She said the total deal amount in AgustaWestland was Rs 3,767 crore and bribe amount was 12 per cent of this. "It was revealed during investigation that undue favours were allegedly shown to AgustaWestland by accepting illegal gratification from the accused vendors through middlemen or relatives including S.P. Tyagi's cousin Sanjeev and advocate Khaitan," the spokesperson said.
"The arrested persons accepted the illegal gratification for exercising influence through illegal means and personal influence over the concerned public servants," she said.
It was alleged that S.P. Tyagi entered into criminal conspiracy with the other accused in 2005, one year after he came to head the IAF.
S.P. Tyagi, his cousins Sanjeev, Rajiv and Sandeep and 14 others, including three European middlemen -- Guido Ralph Haschke, Carlo Vlentino Ferdinando Gerosa and Christian Michel -- were named in an FIR which the Central Bureau of Investigation lodged in March 12, 2013.
Others named in the FIR are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aeromatrix Info Solution Pvt Ltd Praveen Bakshi, Chairman of IDS Infotech Ltd (India) Satish Bagrodia and its Managing Director Pratap K. Aggarwal.
Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, then CEOs of the Italy-based companies Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland, were also named in the FIR. And so were companies Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, IDS Infotech Ltd (India) and Aeromatrix India.

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