The trouble for former Indian Air Force Chief SP Tyagi began after the CBI in its preliminary investigations into Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland chopper deal named his name. He is the second to figure in a defence scam probe.
The CBI alleged that some middlemen had influenced the deal in favour of the Italian defence firm Finmeccanica for the supply of 12 AgustaWestland VVIP helicopters in India.
The Italian firm had allegedly paid bribe of 7 million Euros to the middlemen to get the contract. It is also alleged that huge money was transferred to 7 Indians through Tunisia and Mauritius. Two Indian companies – IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix were also involved in the scam, the agency alleged on Monday.
Besides Tyagi and his cousins, European middlemen Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschkhe, advocate Gautam Khaitan, who was associated with Aeromatrix and its CEO Praveen Bakshi, former Finmeccanica Chairman Giuseppe Orsi, who was arrested by Italian agencies on February 15 in the probe, and former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini have also been named in the multi-crore defence scam.
It is to be noted that Tyagi became the second former defence personnel to figure in a CBI inquiry. Earlier, former Admiral Sushil Kumar was named in a CBI probe into the purchase of Barak missiles in early 2000.