Agusta Westland chopper scam : CBI arrests former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi
NEW DELHI : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi for his alleged role in the Rs.3,600 crore Agusta Westland VVIP chopper scam, along with his brother Sanjeeb Tyagi and Delhi lawyer Gautam Khaitan.
“They were arrested on the allegations of who accepted illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt or illegal means,” a senior CBI official said.
CBI sources said that all the accused have been arrested under Section 120B, Section 420 IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. They were also being interrogated at the CBI headquarters here on Friday.
The questioning revealed that “undue favour” was shown and that AgustaWestland Ltd accepted illegal vendors through middlemen and relatives, including, Sanjeev Tyagi, alias Julie Tyagi, who is SP Tyagi’s brother.
The CBI said that all the three people have been arrested for accepting illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt or illegal means. All three will be produced in the Patiala House court on Saturday.
Tyagi had been questioned for several days earlier this year both by CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the chopper scam.The deal is related to purchase of 12 helicopters for VVIPs from Italian manufacturer, Finmeccanica in 2010 during UPA rule.
According to the reports that Tyagi, who retired in 2007, was questioned by the CBI extensively in the past in this case. This is for first time a former IAF chief has been arrested by the central probe agency.
India had in 2014 scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks of 423 crore rupees by it for securing the deal. CBI had also got issued Letters Rogatory to multiple countries to gather more leads and evidences in this case.
