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